“Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement. Discouragement has a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthritis is different from a stiff joint.”
“Some people walk in the rain - others just get wet.”
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”
“I thought that they were angels, but to my surprise, we climbed aboard their starship, we headed for the skys! Singing come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with meeee…”
- STYX
“The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few.”
“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”
- Mary Tyler Moore
BONUS QUOTE!
“Improvisers, by definition, take risks and make mistakes, lots of them, but that’s what leads them in fresh directions.”
- NYTimes.com, On Improvisation for Business
I laughed mightily at this story of a 15 year-old beauty pageant winner who dyed her hair brunette (GASP!), and how the pageant organizer responded. http://yhoo.it/d4pRUb Any adult that would tell a 15 year-old they’ll never succeed in life should immediately report to my private ass-beating room.
When I was 15 photography was my only school sanctioned, socially acceptable extra-curricular activity. When it was announced that elections were being held for a new Arts Club president I jokingly remarked that I should run. A joke that was immediately greeted with “You would never win” from the entitled girl seated in front of me. Nothing gets my F**k You up faster than being told that I can’t do something. Either that I am incapable or not allowed. So I ran. And won. And that made even more people angry - the adults. I was taken aside by multiple faculty members and quizzed about what my real plan was. I wish I had devious plans at 15 years old.
I wasn’t a teenage Hell Raiser. At least I didn’t try to be. However, I was the type of teen that, when our photography teacher, Mrs. Deutsch, confronted the class about who pooped in a towel and hid it in a darkroom drawer, the whole class turned to look at me. The joke is on them, though, because I had a shy colon. If I needed to poop during school I walked all the way home! A cop once picked me up on my way and returned me to school. I immediately walked back out the door and went home. It’s quiet there and the toilet paper’s better.
I’m thankful for incidents like the above because they’ve helped me cultivate a sense of empathy towards those among us who are…slightly left of the dial. Their value might be a little less obvious, but it’s there. Yes it is. Look harder! The weirdoes among us are not any more prone to being great artists or hugely successful in whatever field they choose. But being a little out of step doesn’t preclude one from being a huge success either. Does it Mark Cuban, Steve Jobs, and Kanye West?
When discussing the aforementioned Teen Beauty Queen a close friend remarked, “Beauty Queen Rebel? *YAWN* She’s no feminist just a dumb kid.” To which I say, True - dying her blonde locks brown is hardly a fashion manifesto. She didn’t tell the Pageant Producer where she could shove her crown out of any deeply held ideological beliefs. She is neither a rebel nor a feminist icon. Yet, guess what dumb kids grow into…
- Jay
“Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown.”
- Soren Kierkegaard
“It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ‘n’ roll”
- AC/DC
BONUS! Enjoy.
What is the inside of your mind like? Mine is like the Minotaur’s labyrinth (Too nerdy?): Lots of twists, turns, and sudden dead ends. Ideas popping up suddenly and disappearing just as quickly. When I met my wife 13 years ago I was awake all night, asleep all day, had a massive stack of unpaid bills and often ate popcorn as a meal. I was having a blast getting nowhere! What a mess. That was a young, self-employed me left to my own devices. I was improvising for audiences nightly but had not yet learned to apply those skills to other areas of my life.
What I have begrudgingly discovered is that, while I loathe it intellectually, I need routine to harness my energy and creativity in a productive manner. My inclination is toward chaos and I really love that about myself. But boundries in the form of routine are the Theseus that keeps my Minotaur on task.
ROUTINE:
1. A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure.
2. A set of normal procedures, often performed mechanically.
I like to go with the flow & play it by ear. Danger! Excitement! Dissonance! I NEED to sit down and make sure the bills get paid each month. What I’ve done to reconcile my Nature with my Need, is turn Routine into Ritual.
RITUAL:
A set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. The purposes of rituals are varied; with religious obligations or ideals, satisfaction of spiritual or emotional needs of the practitioners, strengthening of social bonds — or, sometimes, just for the pleasure of the ritual itself.
Unlike routine, ritual is something I can get into! Improvisation is filled with it. From the primal throbbing of a rhythmic Harold opening to the silly and seemingly frivolous games we play to warm up before a perfomance. A whole set of constructs that, if performed without heart & soul, would be meaningless. But insert your own meaning and - BOOM! - instant celebration. This same mindset can get anyone through life’s neccesary, but boring, parts.
If you’ve got a list of mundane chores every morning, give them a kick by giving them some meaning. Any meaning. Use your toothbrush time to give yourself some positive affirmations in the mirror. While feeding the kids, remind yourself that they are the reason why your hustling through your morning and off to work. Keep doing it every day until you miss it if you don’t. Stop stumbling through life waiting for something fun or important. Start living with purpose by making it fun and important.
I love to iron my clothes. It’s a mindless task I use as an opportunity to focus on my goals for a particular improv workshop, class or show. Slow, deep breathes with each steam burst (unintentionally erotic?). And since I’m ironing clothes for that specific event, as my shirt gets sharp so does my focus. By the time I’m done I am ready to rock.
Improvisers are masters of assigning importance to the mundane. We have to do it on stage to make a scene take off. We have to do it off stage to get connected and coordinate our minds into a single unit. You can do the same. It might seem weird to turn laundry day into a celebration, but give your morning some meaning and your chores some purpose. Turn your Routine into Ritual!
- Jay
“There are three things in life which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension so we must do what we can with the third.”
- Indian Proverb
“Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.”
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