When I have told a story well, I have merely put in place the elements from which you will create your own version of the story.
You meld these elements with your own perspectives, histories, moods and experiences to go places that I can’t begin to imagine.
In this way, Art is a communal exponential experience, and the Universe is as blessed by the one who receives the gift as by the one who first shares it.
In keeping with my recent focus on happiness and passion, I want to let you know that it is perfectly okay to be unhappy.
Really. I promise.
If you’re unhappy, you have every right to feel that way AND to express your unhappiness.
Social pressures
We live in a society that is terrified of unhappiness. Our consumer ways are designed to give you everything money can buy to be happy.
When we see someone who seems unhappy, we try to get them to smile. We ask them what’s wrong.
And in more extreme cases, we try to medicate the unhappiness out of them, the premise being we would rather that you be an emotionless zombie than unhappy.
And rather than face being unhappy, many take to self-medicating whether through narcotics or alcohol, food or sex, or other social mechanisms to display an artificial happiness to the world.
We can be afraid to express our unhappiness with the world for fear the world won’t accept us, that they will take offense at our unhappiness as though we were blaming them for it.
Will my partner think I am blaming him or her? My family members? My co-workers? My friends?
If I tell them I am unhappy and can’t explain why—and often we can’t immediately see it—will they abandon me?
In some cases, with some individuals, the answer may be yes, and that is unfortunate. But in my personal experience, the answer is no.
My unhappiness
I worked for several years with friends on a sketch comedy show. It was a labour of love all the way around, but at a certain point in the project’s development, long after my creative contribution culminated, I became unhappy with my involvement in the process. But I was afraid to say something.
How could I tell my friends I didn’t want to do this anymore, that I didn’t want to participate in our dream project? Would they hate me? Would they tell me to fuck off and die?
I eventually worked up the balls to discuss this with them, to lay out my dilemma. They saw that I was serious and that I was struggling. They asked a few questions for clarification. And then they accepted my decision and continued to love me (and do to this day).
Knowing I was miserable working for one company, another friend got me a position in her company (we had previously worked together). My new coworkers were wonderful, the job was what I had wanted. But six weeks in, I realized I didn’t want to do this job anymore…I wanted to move on to a different dream.
How could I turn away from a wonderful job? How could I betray my friend who introduced me to this company? How I slap these amazing people in the face?
I told my friend I was unhappy and wanted to explore my new dream. She was delighted for me and knew I would be brilliant. I told my new bosses that I loved their company but had to follow my heart. They were thrilled and agreed that I had to pursue my passion.
We often don’t give the people in our lives enough credit for wanting what is best for us. We let fear get in our way; fear of rejection, fear of the unknown.
It’s okay
We are repeatedly told and have come to believe that unhappiness is wrong; it is an aberration; it is an affliction.
It is none of these.
It is a feeling, an emotion, a sign. And we must give it the same respect that we give our other emotions, from anger to joy, from sadness to elation, from frustration to fulfillment.
There are not positive emotions and negative emotions. There are no good feelings and bad feelings.
IT IS OKAY TO BE UNHAPPY!
Until we accept and embrace that we are unhappy, we can never figure out why we are unhappy or what we want to do about that feeling and those circumstances.
Love yourself enough to listen to yourself. Feel what you feel. Share what you can.
Ironically, being unhappy may be your first step to being happy. And if it isn’t, that’s okay, too.
See also:
Dear World,
My apologies if my happiness has gotten a tad obnoxious of late, but my life is blessed in so many ways that I simply cannot keep the joy inside, nor truthfully do I wish to.
Alongside the wonderful gifts I am given every day, I am routinely presented with insane opportunities to express and explore the passions that light up my soul, whether it is writing or photography or sharing knowledge.
But beyond even that, I sit in complete awe at the wondrous passions of the people around me; people with amazing visions of who they are and how the world can be.
I know painters and actors and writers and musicians; parents and partners and children and pets; athletes and industrialists and service workers and technicians. And every single one of those people bring me insane joy simply by following their own passions, whether within their titles or not, and allowing me to be witness and in some cases, participant.
Even watching perfect strangers experience their worlds, or Nature express itself from day to day, brings a beauty and elegance that I simply did not choose to see in my former life but do now.
So how can my heart not burst forth, my spirit soar and the laughter ring forth?
I am both a newborn child seeing things for the first time and an ageless ancient finally understanding the patterns that have always splayed out before my once dulled eyes.
That is my joy. That is my happiness. That is my love.
And unasked, that is what I share with the world.
Each of us tends to undersell (or completely disbelieve) our expertise on subjects that are near and dear to our hearts. Expertise, we believe, is something other people have.
And yet, I am convinced that we are more expert than we think. And fortunately, we are living in a time where methods to convince others of our expertise has never been easier.
Watch my recent Facebook Live video Demystifying Expertise and see if you agree.
A cherished symbol of appreciation and friendship
When someone contracts me to write or to develop marketing creative, I expect to be compensated. Most often, the compensation is money, but on occasion, it is a service-for-service barter.
But, as often as not, I voluntarily offer my creative services to friends and acquaintances who are pursuing passion projects or who are doing something about which I am passionate.
I’ve Tweeted and Facebooked madly about a nearby restaurant that specializes in bacon sandwiches.
I’ve created promotional posters for crowd-funding campaigns of a short film I would love to see made and a bizarre puppetry show at distant Fringe festivals.
Their photo, my verbiage
And in other cases, I’ve merely retweeted and shared posts by favourite bloggers, artists and journalists.
Yet for all of this work—almost universally welcomed by the sources—I have never directly been compensated. And not only am I okay with that, I am actually pleased. Compensation was never my goal.
I’ve had a few friends who’ve witnessed my mania and offered feedback like:
They should be feeding you for free for all this work.
Or
I hope they appreciate what you’re doing for them.
And I smile and shrug, because again, that isn’t my purpose.
Instead, my goal is to apply my passions and skills to help others achieve theirs, even if unsolicited and unrecognized. The point is the doing, not the acknowledgement.
This isn’t to say that such recognition isn’t welcomed and received with gratitude. Pretty much everyone to whom I have offered my gift has expressed his or her joy and appreciation in receiving it. And in a few cases, I have even received wonderful gifts.
After psychotically promoting the anarchic puppet improv spectacle PuppetUp! through social media, the show’s co-creator Patrick Bristow gave me a souvenir puppet from the show to express his thanks. I was grateful for this gesture and cherish the puppet for the sentiment it represents. But the greater gifts I received in this effort were the friendships I formed with the co-creator and the puppeteers that we still maintain years later.
Ironically, if I have struggled of late, it is in the simple acceptance of acts of kindness from others, whether unsolicited or in response to acts on my part. As much as I eschew the same behaviour in those to whom I offer kindness, I feel like I should at least compensate people for theirs to me. Instead, I am making an effort to simply say thank you.
If nothing else, you’re setting up some good karma.
And I smile and shrug, because ultimately, I don’t think you can force karma in any direction.
To my mind, the very desire of and attempt to create good karma negates it. Doing so implies a need for compensation for kind deeds.
It must be enough for me to do the good deed. Karma will do what karma will do.
I used to dismiss my efforts with a waved hand and a quick: It’s nothing. I now realize that is a discredit to myself, to the gift, and to the recipient.
It is not nothing. It is decidedly something. But it is something that I wish to do and offer gladly.
It is, perhaps ironically, a symbol of my gratitude to the recipient.
Sharing a passion with fellow fans
[And now, to completely deflate the seriousness of my message, does anyone else hear the music to The Little Drummer Boy?]
How would you like to give the greatest gift of all without emptying your bank account?
Introducing,
TIME
More than things. More than money. Time is our most valuable commodity.
The willingness to spend time with someone—or some many—is the greatest sign of their value to you.
Spend time listening to a loved one.
Spend time helping a stranger.
Spend time remembering those we have lost.
Spend time with yourself.
With no money down and no payments until EVER, show people how much you care by giving them your time.
As an added bonus: For every time you give another, you get a time for yourself. That’s two times the time for one small investment of…you guessed it…TIME.
In honour of my 200th posting to my blog, I wanted to get some feedback from you, my readers and guests, about the blog.
I worry sometimes that my eagerness to write, my enthusiasm for ideas and visions, puts some people off. That the messages I try to convey are received and perceived as spam, an intrusive noise in the recipient’s day.
This blog is just one example.
Whereas most people post once a week or every couple of weeks, I am posting almost twice a day on average (200 posts in 120 days). I recently joked with a friend that I had only just discovered that other people post to WordPress, too.
My one solace is that social media outlets like WordPress, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are voluntary. That you—my community—have chosen to follow me, to connect with me, and that should I become onerous or boring, it is within your power to ignore me or disconnect entirely. And some people have. I respect that and I thank them for their time, wishing them well.
Working in advertising and owning several email accounts, I understand the invasiveness of spam, the personal violation of being picked out a crowd by someone only looking for personal gain. I don’t want to be that person. I want to share, not push.
But I also want you to know that what you think matters to me. I will always welcome and respect your feedback and commentary, but reserve the right to determine how best to incorporate it, if I do.
In fact, I have initiated a couple of polls to solicit your direct feedback on the volume and content of this blog. I would greatly appreciate you taking a quick second to offer your thoughts.
You are my community, and I am grateful for that.
I spent three days this week wandering the show floor of a conference on stem cells, interviewing scientists and corporate executives for a series of articles I am writing. As this is the first time I have met most of these people, the conversation usually starts somewhat tentative as the people try to figure out how to address my journalistic needs while fulfilling their marketing agendas. This is just the nature of such interviews.
Luckily, I have a secret that tends to break the ice a little. Early in the conversation, I try to find an opening in what they are telling me to relate a personal anecdote or observation about my own scientific training as a protein biochemist—yes, I actually used to be quite smart.
Within seconds, the interviewee’s posture changes, their voice takes on a new timber as they realize that I am a kindred spirit even if my uniform has changed. Suddenly, they know I can relate, and the conversation becomes one between friends or colleagues.
The same holds true for storytelling.
When the reader picks up your novel or short story, the viewer sits down to watch your movie, the initial engagement can be tentative as the reader tries to figure out what you’re doing, where you’re taking them. The reader holds back from completely engaging with you as they wait for that magic moment when they can relate.
No matter how fantastical or mundane your story, the reader must be able to latch onto something, to find a kindred spirit.
More often than not, it is your protagonist—the canonical Everyman or Everywoman—who has some visceral need to fulfill or challenge to overcome. Killing the dragon is the superficial challenge, but damned few of us have had much experience killing dragons. Most of us, however, have fought for the respect of our community or have had to overcome a fear and step forward to take control or responsibility.
Hell, readers might even relate to the dragon, as in the movie Dragonheart, where Sean Connery’s Draco finally explained that his assaults on the townsfolk were [SPOILER ALERT] his attempts to save the last dragon—him—from extinction.
In the rarest of cases, it may not be a character, but the environment to which someone relates. This is my situation with the series Mad Men. I find it difficult to relate to any of the characters and their hyper-exaggerated soap opera problems. Having spent more than five years in advertising, however, I can relate to the creative challenges within the office. I find myself getting angry or frustrated as I watch pitch meetings or client presentations because of my own baggage.
As a creator of your story, you cannot hope to know everyone who will come across your story. Thus, you cannot—nor should you—build your story to accommodate these varied experiences. You have to tell your story to tell it effectively, but you can broaden its appeal by making sure your characters (and possibly your environment) offer clear parallels to the current human experience. (If your primary audience is dogs or fish, then change the word “human” as appropriate.)
At their most basic levels, what are the human conditions that your characters express or are trying to repress (oooh, subtext)? When you get a good handle on that, you’ll have a better understanding of how relatable your story will be to your audience.
(Images are used without permission.)
I write.
I write because I love playing with words.
I write because my head will explode if I don’t.
I write to explore ideas.
I write because I’m interested in a lot of stuff.
I write because I’m a narcissist.
I write because the stories flow through me.
I write because I’m funny (some of the time).
I write because I have thoughts worth expressing.
I write because the blank page beckons.
I write to release my pain.
I write to share my joy.
I write to add beauty to the world.
I write to keep moving.
I write to share the magnificent visions I see.
I write to exorcise and exercise the voices.
I write to play.
I write because I am a writer.
Why do you?
Okay, so for the sake of another writing gig, I have finally signed up to Twitter…pith not being a particular skill of mine, I figured confinement to a mere 140 characters could only help my screenwriting (shorter dialogue, less narrative).
Of course, the brilliant thing about Twitter is, like all other forms of social media, it is totally disconnected from the people with whom I am connecting. Thus, it is a safe place to be myself…sort of.
Social media was developed by introverts in a vain attempt to camoflage their introversion…how can I be introverted when I am telling so many people so much stuff? Sure, there is the immediacy of the message…the feeling of common cause with others of like interests…the ill-considered photos of people in the all-together. But if I really wanted to communicate in any of these ways, I could also stand in a room full of people and talk out loud.
Several years ago, while taking sketch comedy writing classes at the Second City Training Centre in Toronto, I wrote a sketch about a brand new social medium that I called Face-to-Facebook. I offer a couple of lines from the sketch below:
JAN (SURPRISED) Face-to-Facebook? How’s it work?
TED Well, let’s say that I want to tell you our infomercial will start 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. I simply turn to you and say, “Hey Janet, our informercial is going to start 15 minutes earlier than scheduled.”
JAN (AMAZED) Wow! It’s that easy?
TED Yes, it is. (TO AUDIENCE) Face-to-Facebook puts the “instant” back into “instant messaging”.
and
TED Hey Janet. “less than” “colon” “hyphen” “capital P” “greater than” (<:-P>)
JAN (CONFUSED) What is that supposed to mean, Ted?
TED It was just me sticking my tongue out at you in emoticon. (TO AUDIENCE) Aren’t emoticons annoying? But with Face-to-Facebook, you no longer have to worry about deciphering these strange little creatures. If you want to know if I’m happy, just look at my face. (HE SMILES)
JAN That’s amazing! (QUESTIONING) But tell me, Ted; is Face-to-Facebook secure?
TED Secure? The best thing about Face-to-Facebook is that no matter how hard he tries, only a blind kid would confuse a 45-year-old pedophile with a 13-year-old school girl. (OFFHANDED) And who needs blind kids, anyway?
Everyone laughed (LOLed, in fact), but I wonder how many people actually saw themselves as my target. I know I did.
So in my never-ending efforts to reach out and not actually touch someone, I have now added yet another way to annoy people with my self-important drivel.
You’re welcome.
PS I’ve linked all of my social networks together, so if the Internet comes crashing down in a couple of seconds because of a message loop, my bad.
PPS Forgot to include my Twitter address: @createdbyrcw (that’s right, I said PP)
Poster from my sketch comedy show at Toronto’s Second City Theatre (part of the SC Training Centre)
PIECES OF ME...
Mother, Nehiyaw, Metis, & Itisahwâkan - career communicator. This is my collection of opinions, stories, and the occasional rise to, or fall from, challenge. In other words, it's my party, I can fun if I want to. Artwork by aaronpaquette.net
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The internet web log of Michael Cedarwood. I used to be a stripper. Now I'm a writer.
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