Be In The Scene You Want To Be In

Image by Pedro Moura Pinheiro on Flickr

“If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined. Oh, dare to do it, Buddy! Trust your heart. You’re a deserving craftsman. It would never betray you.”
-The character of Seymour, writing to his younger brother, Buddy, in Seymour, An Introduction by JD Salinger

I found this quote here, and it immediately reminded me of something my improv teacher, Ari Voukydis, said last week: “Be in the scene you want to be in.” In other words, if you find yourself in the middle of a scene that sucks, remember that the scene is what you make it (this is improv, after all – we’re making it up as we go).

Like so many improv lessons, this advice applies to life, as well. Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who still, after many years, feels like he’s stuck in a job that has no relationship to who he wants to be on this earth. He’d leave, but he doesn’t know what else he wants to do. He works it over and over in his head, but never reaches a convincing conclusion. Meanwhile, time ticks by…

As another improv teacher, Topher Bellavia, once told me, “It doesn’t matter what choice you make. It only matters that you make a choice, and commit to it.” This also applies to life offstage. So often we think there’s a “right” choice, and we remain paralyzed, terrified of getting it wrong. But people: these lives? They’re ours. They’re made up of the choices we make, and the things we do. If you don’t want to be someone who works at a law firm – don’t be that person.

I know, it’s not that easy. We have the voices of the naysayers in our heads — parents telling us we’re being naive, “friends” telling us we’re lucky just to have a job. Sure. But to apply another improv principle, the notion of “Yes, and”: one thing can be true, AND another thing can be true. We can be lucky to have a job, and we can give thanks for our good fortune every morning; AND, every day, we can feel deep in our gut that this job is not our true path in life, and we can take steps to find another one. Gratitude and desire are not mutually exclusive.

So: write the book you want to read; be in the scene you want to be in; live the life you desire.

“In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, ‘If we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination,’ and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.”- Brian Andreas

Related Links:

• An Accident of Hope, a blog by Summer Pierre, the author of The Artist in the Office: How to Creatively Survive and Thrive Seven Days a Week (this blog is where I found the Salinger quote above)
• On Seeking Fulfillment, a post from my previous blog, Creative DC (“Finding fulfillment isn’t about finding a magic bullet – a ‘dream job,’ a perfect city to live in, a perfect mate; instead, finding fulfillment is about developing the ability to know what you want, and the will to go get it.”)