Whatever one's role in life is, we all have our own particular style, our own particular character.
Jim Capaldi
******************
Hello Rose
******************
There is always a narrative involved, always a story. Whether it is a painting, a sculpture, a symphony, a song, a novel, a legal document, an essay in a scientific journal. a play or a life, there is always a story involved.
Some people tend to tell their life stories, in bits and pieces, by writing it out in their blogs. I had a conversation today with someone who mentioned a man she knew who said that he thought a second person, disinterested or not, should edit our blogs. Well, I thought, that might not be a bad idea if you are unsure of things like spelling and grammar. But if someone takes it upon themselves to be editor and critic of my blog I'm going to say "Mind your own business."
I enjoy reading other people's blogs because they are all different. Every one has a style and purpose of it's own. The character and personality of the blogger makes it what it is, and any editor should take that into consideration if they are called upon to read and make corrections or suggest changes.
The world is full of critics. Everyone, it seems, is a critic. Some people actually make a living as critics. Most of them, alas, do more harm than good. New York City critics are infamous for destroying a perfectly good show or gallery exhibit by doing nothing more than expressing an opinion. The artists, hopefully, will survive it, many don't. But the critic will generally be forgotten. The composer Jean Sibelius put it succinctly when he wrote "There has never been set up a statue in honor of a critic."
Critics love to analyze artists. 99.99% of the time they don't really know what they are seeing or hearing. Actors are particularly vulnerable to that kind of misplaced energy because it is the actor's own person that is the canvas, the musical instrument that is being played. The actor is the one upon whom the story is being told. And a good actor never forgets that. His first obligation as an artist is to tell the story.
Those who observe and comment on actors come in three types: those who are helpful, those who are abusive and those who seem satisfied. The helpful ones are those who can make good suggestions because they can recognize what the actor is doing and how to enhance it. Those who are abusive are usually the most ignorant ones.
I ran into one of those idiots in a directing class at a major New York City film school. I played a scene for the class and after it he immediately began tearing apart what I was doing. It was a directing class but he was trying to teach me acting. I had been an actor for many years.
What he couldn't understand was that as an actor I had made a choice and was acting on that choice (and doing it well, let me humbly add). If he didn't like the choice then as a director he could ask for a different choice or suggest one. I had worked with many good directors in my day. That man was not one of them. I pitied the kids in the class. He wasn't teaching them to properly direct a scene. He was teaching them how to abuse actors.
No two actors will play a scene the same way. The important thing is to get the story told. I can't live your life, and you can't live mine. We both have our stories, and how we tell them is what makes us unique in personality, character and style. That uniqueness should be respected, and not abused.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
****************************
HEAR YE, HEAR YE
With the holidays coming up I'm going to risk it all and ask for some guest bloggers to enter my journal with special thoughts on the holidays. So be thinking about it. Beginning tomorrow I'll state the specifics. Admission is free. All are welcome.
DB
****************************
Showing posts with label choices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label choices. Show all posts
Monday, December 5, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Good Choice
History is the sum total of things that could have been avoided.
Konrad Adenauer
***********************
Life is just a catalogue of results. We live mainly with the consequences of the choices we made or the choices that were made for us one way or another. When we start out we have no choices of our own, they are made for us. We didn't choose to be born. We're given a name before we are consulted about it. We didn't choose our parents or where we live. The best we can do is to make demands by means of loud noises. By the time we reach the age when someone finally asks us what we want we are so unused to making choices that we probably don't know. Then we may make a choice we regret.
The choosing process usually doesn't take long but the results of our choices can last a while, maybe even the rest of our lives. Some people claim our destiny is written in the stars or our DNA. I claim it is more likely written in our choices. In so many of the simple, so called trivial moments of our lives we are likely to make choices that have far reaching results. You make a simple choice to go one way and not the other and your entire future has changed even though you don't know it yet.
Why is the world in such a mess? Because over the many years of our human existence choices were made, some good, some not so good and some dreadful. So many of the rocky, thorn bush lined paths we've trod as citizens of the earth could have been avoided if only someone had made a better choice way back.
Along with the bundle of results we have to live with as a result of our decisions is the nasty crop of regrets. A wiser person may say "Don't do that. You'll regret it." Do we listen and heed? Maybe. If we're smart we do. But maybe not and then we have our own personal regret to live with. Regrets are negative crops, the weeds that grow up along side the wheat. They should be rooted up and discarded. What's the point of regretting? It's a Herculean waste of time and effort. "The past is prologue" Shakespeare wrote. The future is what is important, and since you've learned now to make better choices (haven't you?) you can look forward to better results.
Some wise person once said "You always get what you want. So be very careful about what you want."
DB - The Vagabond
--------------------------
Never give up.
**************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Konrad Adenauer
***********************
Life is just a catalogue of results. We live mainly with the consequences of the choices we made or the choices that were made for us one way or another. When we start out we have no choices of our own, they are made for us. We didn't choose to be born. We're given a name before we are consulted about it. We didn't choose our parents or where we live. The best we can do is to make demands by means of loud noises. By the time we reach the age when someone finally asks us what we want we are so unused to making choices that we probably don't know. Then we may make a choice we regret.
The choosing process usually doesn't take long but the results of our choices can last a while, maybe even the rest of our lives. Some people claim our destiny is written in the stars or our DNA. I claim it is more likely written in our choices. In so many of the simple, so called trivial moments of our lives we are likely to make choices that have far reaching results. You make a simple choice to go one way and not the other and your entire future has changed even though you don't know it yet.
Why is the world in such a mess? Because over the many years of our human existence choices were made, some good, some not so good and some dreadful. So many of the rocky, thorn bush lined paths we've trod as citizens of the earth could have been avoided if only someone had made a better choice way back.
Along with the bundle of results we have to live with as a result of our decisions is the nasty crop of regrets. A wiser person may say "Don't do that. You'll regret it." Do we listen and heed? Maybe. If we're smart we do. But maybe not and then we have our own personal regret to live with. Regrets are negative crops, the weeds that grow up along side the wheat. They should be rooted up and discarded. What's the point of regretting? It's a Herculean waste of time and effort. "The past is prologue" Shakespeare wrote. The future is what is important, and since you've learned now to make better choices (haven't you?) you can look forward to better results.
Some wise person once said "You always get what you want. So be very careful about what you want."
DB - The Vagabond
--------------------------
Never give up.
**************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
To Flip Or Not To Flip
The choices we make determine the choices we get to make.
Dana Bate
****************
Hello Abu Sunbul, Egypt
*************************
I once knew a young man who was a typist for a law firm but who had plans to become rich. One day he said "The only thing I want to worry about is whether to shop at Gucci or Fendi." He might as well have said Tiffany or Cartier. Those may be hard choices for a wealthy person, but they are non choices for a man on a limited budget such as myself. Sometimes, if I happened to go that way, I would stop and admire the fabled window displays at the Tiffany building. But go through the front door? No.
Rich or otherwise our lives are comprised of choices. Like beads on a string, one choice leads to another and another after that. And each choice we make eliminates all the others, at least temporarily. It's very tempting to look back over our lives and wonder what would have happened if we had gone left instead of right, or if we had taken a chance on something which we avoided. But it's a thoroughly pointless pastime. You didn't go left, you didn't take the chance, so don't think about it. Or if you do, do it to learn about yourself. (Arlene understands that. Don't you Arlene?)
Choices are very simple, whether to have a fried egg or a boiled egg for breakfast. On the other hand they may be very complicated, which college to go to, what career path to take, whether to get married or not, where to settle down. Once one of those choices is made it opens up a whole series of other choices, other beads for the string, and each one of those choices presents another series of choices. Ethical, financial, social, professional, religious, physical, etc. we never run out of choices.
Some things look like choices which aren't. Did you choose to drop that jar of jam on the floor? Of course not. It's what to do next that is your choice Did you choose to have the automobile accident? No, but what's next, to go and rage at the other driver or to calmly get the important insurance information and get on with life? Sometimes life throws us a curve ball. The choice is to hit it or let it pass.
I used to be a horse player, I wagered money on horse races, and I was good at it. I made a profit because I was very careful and conservative about how I used my money. I carefully researched every horse in a particular race, never played favorites because they were favorites, or long shots because they were long shots. The odds didn't concern me. Profits large or small were what concerned me. I used to refer to it as investing in a small business, with four legs, a head at one end, a tail at the other and a small person sitting on it. A major lesson I learned from that experience was that the time to worry is before I put my money down, not after. Once the wager is placed sit down, enjoy the sunshine, watch the race and wait for the result.
Sometimes it seems as if life is waiting for you to make a decision, but not offering any advice. Then as soon as you make a choice life says "Okay. In that case you have the following options" and you wonder why you didn't know the options before hand. It's not knowing what is behind the doors you are facing that makes life frustrating and makes choosing difficult.
Then there comes the most difficult choice of all, to give up on life or to go on living.
"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?"
(Shakespeare)
Drowning in a sea of troubles is a very real possibility and a very real choice. But if the only armor you have against the approaching tide is a rock then throw the rock at the sea and search for another one. The tide will go out and if you fill up the shore with enough rock hard choices when it comes back in again it may not reach you.
To compromise myself by letting all the results of my wrong choices and the flying arrows of outrageous bad luck wash over me and then quitting the fight is not my option. Even in the face of creeping errors and meager opportunities, I have other roads to seek and other doors to open. In front of all the great philosophers I read, from ancient Greece to modern California, my rule of life is summed up in three simple words: never give up.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Dana Bate
****************
Hello Abu Sunbul, Egypt
*************************
I once knew a young man who was a typist for a law firm but who had plans to become rich. One day he said "The only thing I want to worry about is whether to shop at Gucci or Fendi." He might as well have said Tiffany or Cartier. Those may be hard choices for a wealthy person, but they are non choices for a man on a limited budget such as myself. Sometimes, if I happened to go that way, I would stop and admire the fabled window displays at the Tiffany building. But go through the front door? No.
Rich or otherwise our lives are comprised of choices. Like beads on a string, one choice leads to another and another after that. And each choice we make eliminates all the others, at least temporarily. It's very tempting to look back over our lives and wonder what would have happened if we had gone left instead of right, or if we had taken a chance on something which we avoided. But it's a thoroughly pointless pastime. You didn't go left, you didn't take the chance, so don't think about it. Or if you do, do it to learn about yourself. (Arlene understands that. Don't you Arlene?)
Choices are very simple, whether to have a fried egg or a boiled egg for breakfast. On the other hand they may be very complicated, which college to go to, what career path to take, whether to get married or not, where to settle down. Once one of those choices is made it opens up a whole series of other choices, other beads for the string, and each one of those choices presents another series of choices. Ethical, financial, social, professional, religious, physical, etc. we never run out of choices.
Some things look like choices which aren't. Did you choose to drop that jar of jam on the floor? Of course not. It's what to do next that is your choice Did you choose to have the automobile accident? No, but what's next, to go and rage at the other driver or to calmly get the important insurance information and get on with life? Sometimes life throws us a curve ball. The choice is to hit it or let it pass.
I used to be a horse player, I wagered money on horse races, and I was good at it. I made a profit because I was very careful and conservative about how I used my money. I carefully researched every horse in a particular race, never played favorites because they were favorites, or long shots because they were long shots. The odds didn't concern me. Profits large or small were what concerned me. I used to refer to it as investing in a small business, with four legs, a head at one end, a tail at the other and a small person sitting on it. A major lesson I learned from that experience was that the time to worry is before I put my money down, not after. Once the wager is placed sit down, enjoy the sunshine, watch the race and wait for the result.
Sometimes it seems as if life is waiting for you to make a decision, but not offering any advice. Then as soon as you make a choice life says "Okay. In that case you have the following options" and you wonder why you didn't know the options before hand. It's not knowing what is behind the doors you are facing that makes life frustrating and makes choosing difficult.
Then there comes the most difficult choice of all, to give up on life or to go on living.
"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?"
(Shakespeare)
Drowning in a sea of troubles is a very real possibility and a very real choice. But if the only armor you have against the approaching tide is a rock then throw the rock at the sea and search for another one. The tide will go out and if you fill up the shore with enough rock hard choices when it comes back in again it may not reach you.
To compromise myself by letting all the results of my wrong choices and the flying arrows of outrageous bad luck wash over me and then quitting the fight is not my option. Even in the face of creeping errors and meager opportunities, I have other roads to seek and other doors to open. In front of all the great philosophers I read, from ancient Greece to modern California, my rule of life is summed up in three simple words: never give up.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Toss The Coin
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.
Publius Tacitus
****************
This has been a difficult week for me. I'm faced with the dilemma of making a life changing decision. The decision isn't potentially life changing but one of the two choices is. I've been thinking about how easy it is to be turned into a major change of our lives because of a simple act, such as signing a piece of paper or saying a one syllable word like "yes" or "no."
Our lives change to one degree or another every day because's of choices we make. Most of the time those changes are minor and we don't see them as changes simply because we probably don't know what the alternatives were. Other times the changes are major ones but we may not remember what the choice was that brought it about. It may have been a simple choice with enormous results we didn't expect. It's baffling. "What choice did I make way back that led me to the situation I'm in now?"
When faced with a difficult choice reason is the best tool to use, but that takes mental effort, sometimes painful. We would rather have a fast answer so we flip a coin, read Tarot cards, consult the I Ching, check out our horoscope or look for a sign from heaven. But Shakespeare wisely said "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie which we ascribe to heaven."
One afternoon a friend and I decided to go for a drive in a part of New Hampshire we were unfamiliar with and to decide where to go by flipping a coin. Whenever we came to an intersection coin flips would tell us which road to take. We stopped for lunch at a dull diner. The food was dull and there were absolutely no pictures or decorations on the walls. On the other hand we turned up a hill that took us to one of the most magnificent sights. To our right the hill continued up to a mansion of a house and to the left to a large wide field of wild flowers with gray mountains way in the distance. We just stopped and stared for quite a while. Eventually our coin took us back onto a highway heading home. I don't know where we went but it was a fun road trip through a strange part of central New Hampshire and I will never forget that magnificent view our coin led us to.
I will find the remedy in myself and come to a decision, and it won't be based on a coin toss. I will no doubt opt for enterprise rather than safety. Ah, but which is which? That's the dilemma.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
Weekend Puzzle
A minimalist cryptogram.
B'S GHH GH1 TXTPE P.M.
GHH GH1 ZTTHBFI AZURE
1L'O CATPT U R & AYC U R
& BZ U R GHH GH1 2.
BPXBFI NTPHBF
(G L)
DB
Publius Tacitus
****************
This has been a difficult week for me. I'm faced with the dilemma of making a life changing decision. The decision isn't potentially life changing but one of the two choices is. I've been thinking about how easy it is to be turned into a major change of our lives because of a simple act, such as signing a piece of paper or saying a one syllable word like "yes" or "no."
Our lives change to one degree or another every day because's of choices we make. Most of the time those changes are minor and we don't see them as changes simply because we probably don't know what the alternatives were. Other times the changes are major ones but we may not remember what the choice was that brought it about. It may have been a simple choice with enormous results we didn't expect. It's baffling. "What choice did I make way back that led me to the situation I'm in now?"
When faced with a difficult choice reason is the best tool to use, but that takes mental effort, sometimes painful. We would rather have a fast answer so we flip a coin, read Tarot cards, consult the I Ching, check out our horoscope or look for a sign from heaven. But Shakespeare wisely said "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie which we ascribe to heaven."
One afternoon a friend and I decided to go for a drive in a part of New Hampshire we were unfamiliar with and to decide where to go by flipping a coin. Whenever we came to an intersection coin flips would tell us which road to take. We stopped for lunch at a dull diner. The food was dull and there were absolutely no pictures or decorations on the walls. On the other hand we turned up a hill that took us to one of the most magnificent sights. To our right the hill continued up to a mansion of a house and to the left to a large wide field of wild flowers with gray mountains way in the distance. We just stopped and stared for quite a while. Eventually our coin took us back onto a highway heading home. I don't know where we went but it was a fun road trip through a strange part of central New Hampshire and I will never forget that magnificent view our coin led us to.
I will find the remedy in myself and come to a decision, and it won't be based on a coin toss. I will no doubt opt for enterprise rather than safety. Ah, but which is which? That's the dilemma.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
Weekend Puzzle
A minimalist cryptogram.
B'S GHH GH1 TXTPE P.M.
GHH GH1 ZTTHBFI AZURE
1L'O CATPT U R & AYC U R
& BZ U R GHH GH1 2.
BPXBFI NTPHBF
(G L)
DB
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