Today...Tomorrow...whatever

Hey!  I have a blog!  I had totally forgotten.  Stuff caught up with me.  A trip across the country, a new school year starting, six shows and a pageant, casting directing, Italy, London, middle schoolers....Actually, it's been almost five years since my last post.  You know what?  The world kept spinning.  My last post about time is so relevant at any point.  Here's what I know, "the usual" is what some people crave.  A sense of routine and expectation.  Some people love living in chaos.  Some people try to balance the two like a fat kid on a tightrope (that's a simile, children!).   I teach an amazing poem called, "The Lesson of the Moth."  (http://www.donmarquis.org/themoth.htm)  Fantastic!  Isn't it?  It represents society's views so perfectly.  It was written in the '30's by Don Marquis, an American author and humorist.  Are we that predictable?  When I read 1984, I thought this could never happen. Enter the "Patriot Act."  I marvel at how Shakespeare completely captured the waffling minds of teenagers in Romeo and Juliet.  Spoiled little emo kids.  How does that happen?  How does something written 400, 100, 50 years ago mirror our society today?  It is something I ponder.  I wonder if I was born in the wrong era.  I'm sure the party-girl in me would have loved the rebellious nature of the 1920's.  I'm also sure that I should have been present for Elvis Presley's rise to stardom as he would have seen me in the audience, I would have charmed my groupie ass backstage, and then maybe he wouldn't have skeezed off to Germany to marry a 13 year old for CRYING OUT LOUD.   Yes.  Yes, I just insinuated that I would have been Mrs. Elvis Aron Presley if I was alive then.  Anyway, I guess it is futile to wish yourself back to a time that seemed to have the same real issues at core.  The hair, clothes, and music may have changed, but the real struggles of seeking love, living life, having purpose are timeless.  So here's what I know, today is our time.  Not where we want to be in 5 years.  Not what we will accomplish when we get that job, lose that weight, find that perfect someone...Today.  As my wise 96 year old Italian Nana says, "Don't talk to me about tomorrow.  I might not be here."  Carpe Diem!

Time Keeps On Slipping, Slipping, Slipping...

So here's what I know...Things keep moving forward whether I want them to or not.  People come and go in my life; some cause me great joy, some cause me great sorrow.  I hate when you spend time building people up and all they do is knock you down.  On the other hand, I love when someone takes the time to tell me my time has not been wasted.  I guess that is rooted in a need for affirmation.  We get thick-skinned and say, "I don't care what other people say about me!"  There is no truth in that statement for me.  I care too much.  A careless word can sit with me for years and make me doubt my worth.  Here's what I know...I move forward.  I forgive.  I dream again about all the things I won't physically be able to accomplish.  I strive for perfection so that the kids look amazing.  If that makes me a bitch...oh, well.  It grieves me that I could even be called that, but I keep moving forward.  I am looking forward to an amazing year, not back at a crappy one!  Move on! 

Stage Stamina...

You know those shows that ask you to just be exhausted when the curtain goes down?  If you've done your job right, your sucking wind just trying to catch your breath.  We always think, "That was awesome!  I made it!"  I remember the first time I made it all the way through Tae-Bo.  I might have cried.  Why don't we work that hard in life?  Especially in our relationships.  Where is our stamina?  We have been force fed a relationship myth of roses and sunshine!  A myth that gives us two extreme choices.  Be happy or leave.  Happy is just supposed to happen.  It shouldn't be a lot of work.  It's up to others to make us happy.  Most of us know that's not true.  It's work...exhausting, wind-sucking work.  I've been working on my core.  It is supposed to make every other muscle group work smarter.  Not harder, smarter.  I want to work smarter.  The dust from relationship wars is settling, and I'm realizing that the two extreme choices are both impossible.  I can't be happy all the time.  I can't leave.  No.  I think I'll settle in, work on my core, and build my stamina, so when the curtain comes down, I can say, "That was awesome!  I made it!"

All's Well That Ends Well...

So tonight is the final performance of The Drowsy Chaperone, and here's what I know...everyone has a different process not to just acting, but life.  Some use time honored traditions to guide their steps, some use a faith-based book to order their actions, some emulate those that society has deemed "important", some completely rebel against all order, and some medicate their way through their day.  Any of these methods have the ability for success and failure.  If an audience relates to a specific choice, your in; however, if an audience rejects the method the actor has chosen to develop the character, they disconnect.  Doesn't that happen so often in life?  We disconnect with people because we judge their method and in turn judge them.  I can hear the judgement in certain conversations I have with my 17 year old, because I have tried the method she's dabbling in and I assume, based on the fact that it didn't work for me, it won't work for her.  Silly to think that I am in complete control of her choices.  Directors try to guide our choices, but ultimately, we the actors stand on the stage hoping to please the audience with our choices, our methods on display.  Some will stand and applaud, some may walk out based on their personal process.  I am trying not to take things so personally and just let people work out their own method.  I'll stay connected to those people whose processes are different than mine for two reasons.  1.  I might learn something new.  2.  Every method has value.    

Here's What I Know...

As a high school Drama teacher, I use that phrase A LOT!  In fact, there's a bingo game wherein that phrase is center square.  I don't pretend to know everything, I am just willing to learn about anything.  I remember one of my college professors introduced me to a great word...Quidnunc.  Webster defines it thus: QUIDNUNC: a person who seeks to know all the latest news or gossip : busybody.  Now most people would read this and immediately think of TMZ.  The words gossip and busybody do create a negative connotation, however, I like to focus on the words "latest news."  How is it that an entire generation of students who have immediate access to information, can know so little about their environment?  As actors, it is our duty to be current, relevant even.  I challenge you this week to get connected beyond facebook.  Read the news, know what is happening around you.  Your primary source databank will thank you :)