The Art of Dramatic Living

I am in Abilene Texas today enjoying the air conditioning, wearing SPF 50 sunblock and visiting with lots of folks I haven’t seen in a long long time. This post will be short, but I want to share with you some of the things I have been thinking about this week and some of the resources I found while on the road.

I was searching around for info about myths as metaphors for the creative process. The internet – being basically a literal beast – found this for me: Myths About Creativity on CreatingMinds.org. The first sub-heading caught my eye, “Creativity is Stupid”. I’ve never heard it said quite that blatantly, but I’ve confronted this belief more than once in my lifetime. I’ve come across many people who perceive creative people as unrealistic airy-fairy idealists who can’t cope with responsibility.

I watched this wonderful video on TED Talks this morning and it was music to my ears, a breath of fresh air, a bundle of lovely cliches that say, “I felt good.” Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love and she talks about the frightening reactions she’s been getting from people since the “freakish success” of Eat, Pray, Love.

I wrote yesterday about closing my last show and the end of my streak of acting gigs. It’s a bittersweet ending. And I do feel some fear or some apprehension when I think I might not get that energy back. Finding this video today was an encouraging bit of synchronicity.

If it weren’t for the doing of it, I wouldn’t know what I wanted to do. Aha moment this morning!

I have a confession. I plunged into this blogging project and the acting classes without a lot of forethought. When I began, I had no idea what I wanted and truth be told – the dream is still unfolding. All I know right now is that I am building something of value. Something authentic and something new.