The Anecdotal Life Part. 106
Sometimes I feel I should have named this THE ACCIDENTAL LIFE. Basically because, whatever I plan and choose seems to have nothing to do with the ensuing trail of events though maybe these particular events should be called Serendipity. I read a great quote in an Einstein quote on my google homepage that said, "Serendipity is just another way of God's remaining anonymous" That isn't a perfectly rendered quote, but that is what it meant. I am not what one would call a religious person. I prefer to pick and choose from many religions or philosophies and amble along dodging the misfortune of being locked into one creed. I fall short of being an atheist because that takes a lot more work to believe there is nothing when there is so much something. Do those people ever just look around themselves?
Enough of that and to get to the point about something I intended to have happen and what really did. I learned a lot. I was writing to a young friend who is braving the world of theater in New York. I wanted to say something inspiring and on Facebook of all places, where being shallow has become an art. Not that I hate Facebook altogether, since I find family members and friends wandering through occasionally.
I wrote that if you perfected your craft and focused on that, all the rest would follow. I wrote that pure intent mattered and then had the temerity to leave it at that. More banal and useless , it doesn't get already, which is what occurred to me the next day after I had the audacity to send the message.
It was this serendipitous event that triggered my "enlightenment." I was tearing through the library, desperate to read something, anything, having been "out of books to read" for a week. I bet I had all of five minutes to choose. Thanks to my trusty, favorite librarian I ended up in autobiographies. I spotted a book called, ACT I by Moss Hart. I had no intention of elucidating to my friend as to the meaning of "pure intent" or learning anything for myself. I was just getting sick of mystery writers and for a second I almost placed it back on the shelf.
But I had run out of time and said, " oh well," clutched it, and ran to the checkout counter.
Since it was the only unread book in the house and by my bedside I opened it reluctantly that night thinking, " this was a big mistake".
When I hit page 162 it struck me hard-- that all of it concerned intent. In a thousand forms: motives, drives, resiliency, desperate anxiety and poverty driven leaps of faith on a relentless path to ruin, humiliation, innumerable failures, all painfully described in brutally wrenching honesty culminating in a relieving final success. Moreover this book brought to light the underbelly and backside of the theatre business in New York. I could have "crawled under something", but there were too many Christmas boxes crammed under my bed. I did finally remember two inspiring Chinese proverbs about intent that helped me to keep going in art. " A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song." and " Do what you love; that is wisdom." Later, I found a favorite by Thomas Edison, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks a lot like work." However, this may constitute the longest apology in history, and I want my young friend to know, I am sending him for Christmas, a copy of ACT I, by Moss Hart for some real help along the way. For the rest of you, all my love and best wishes for the holidays with a huge wish for good fortune in whatever endeavor you are pursuing. We all understand the struggle.
Copyright: December 15, 2010
Enough of that and to get to the point about something I intended to have happen and what really did. I learned a lot. I was writing to a young friend who is braving the world of theater in New York. I wanted to say something inspiring and on Facebook of all places, where being shallow has become an art. Not that I hate Facebook altogether, since I find family members and friends wandering through occasionally.
I wrote that if you perfected your craft and focused on that, all the rest would follow. I wrote that pure intent mattered and then had the temerity to leave it at that. More banal and useless , it doesn't get already, which is what occurred to me the next day after I had the audacity to send the message.
It was this serendipitous event that triggered my "enlightenment." I was tearing through the library, desperate to read something, anything, having been "out of books to read" for a week. I bet I had all of five minutes to choose. Thanks to my trusty, favorite librarian I ended up in autobiographies. I spotted a book called, ACT I by Moss Hart. I had no intention of elucidating to my friend as to the meaning of "pure intent" or learning anything for myself. I was just getting sick of mystery writers and for a second I almost placed it back on the shelf.
But I had run out of time and said, " oh well," clutched it, and ran to the checkout counter.
Since it was the only unread book in the house and by my bedside I opened it reluctantly that night thinking, " this was a big mistake".
When I hit page 162 it struck me hard-- that all of it concerned intent. In a thousand forms: motives, drives, resiliency, desperate anxiety and poverty driven leaps of faith on a relentless path to ruin, humiliation, innumerable failures, all painfully described in brutally wrenching honesty culminating in a relieving final success. Moreover this book brought to light the underbelly and backside of the theatre business in New York. I could have "crawled under something", but there were too many Christmas boxes crammed under my bed. I did finally remember two inspiring Chinese proverbs about intent that helped me to keep going in art. " A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song." and " Do what you love; that is wisdom." Later, I found a favorite by Thomas Edison, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks a lot like work." However, this may constitute the longest apology in history, and I want my young friend to know, I am sending him for Christmas, a copy of ACT I, by Moss Hart for some real help along the way. For the rest of you, all my love and best wishes for the holidays with a huge wish for good fortune in whatever endeavor you are pursuing. We all understand the struggle.
Copyright: December 15, 2010
posted by The Anecdotal Life at 5:53 AM
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