A beautiful adaptation of "The Little Prince" recently released on Netflix left me feeling rather lachrymose. I began writing a new song as I contemplated the forgotten lives of my friends; the real lives that have been replaced with phony ones. As a little girl in "The Little Prince" film struggles with the pragmatism of her new neighborhood, an eccentric old man next door shines through the bureaucratic mundanity, showing us all that there is more to life than what society wants of us. I am reminded of the opening lines of Samuel Beckett's Murphy, "The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. Murphy sat out of it, as though he were free, in a mew in West Brompton."
So many people I encounter ask me what I do for a living. After expressing that my music is the most important work in my life, they begin telling me some of the things that have left them unfulfilled. They tell me that they wish they could be in a band or that they could achieve some sort of artistic endeavor. I ask them a question which people tend to hate, "why have you stopped?" Most people begin to spout off a variation of an empty mantra I've heard thousands of times before, "real life has caught up with me."
In my most recent conversation pertaining to this topic, I had a lady in her early 30s tell me she spends most of her free time practicing yoga and meditation to alleviate the stress and anxiety that she has attained from her hectic life. Yet, when she was telling me about her artistic endeavors, she had a wonderful glimmer in her eyes and an alteration in the pitch of her voice when she was articulating her dreams. She went back to the monotonous voice she and many others have mastered: a craft that 'functioning members of society' have perfected. I began thinking about the people in my life in which I've had similar conversations with. Their bureaucratic voices and the tough guy personas are used to cover up their fear, the human condition, and their true selves. I wish I could have sat her down and told her what I'm about to tell you in hopes that she would begin pursuing her real life.
The societal lives we hold on to so dearly are not our real lives. Occupations reveal nothing about our character. So why are we so fearful, and what does it take for us to break through the concrete and blossom through pragmatism?
It makes every bit of sense why we are fearful. Society crams so many things down our throats that it seems to intentionally induce fear; The news encourages xenophobia as religions that proselytize promote cultural homogenization, and we are left living a life where we are discouraged to be ourselves. It is extremely difficult to break through this fear since we have been living with it our entire lives.
I wholeheartedly believe in the duality of love and fear in life. How can we love others if we are fearful of ourselves? It goes without mentioning that we cannot be fearful of our subconscious desires if we truly desire to love ourselves. Yet every single one of us are prostitutes. We need to make money in order for us to function in society. However, we should not be deterred from being brave enough to pursue the most essential thing in life: ourselves. Fear is an epidemic, and we are compromising this essential thing as fear takes precedence.
What society calls a real life is most certainly not a real life because we have to sacrifice ourselves in the process. Being an adult should not mean being, to refer to Pink Floyd, "another brick in the wall." If you are an artist, you must realize that your story matters. Regardless of whether people like your art or not, you become a light that shines through pragmatism if you actualize your art. You become a much needed breath of fresh air in the polluted city.
You might tell me that is easy for me to say since I am used to pursuing my art. But I have continued doing it even though I've done some awful performances. It really doesn't matter because not a single person is ready to start performing in bands, doing open mics, or what ever the hell you do that enables you to be yourself. When we show off our work, we are showing an incredibly vulnerable aspect of ourselves. The initial first step is always the most difficult.
As we are attempting to actualize our art, we become so obsessed with our limitations that our vision falters. We get angry that we haven't pursued what we are meant to pursue. We take it out on others because it is rather comfortable to combat the crappiness of the mundanity with treating others like crap. However, the real way to combat this fear while attaining our real selves is to create even though there is a risk. We need to create to combat against homogenization and to retain our humanity.
Although it is difficult to do, in order to tap into this creative nature, we must be willing to work at it every day of our lives. Although we can get so busy with our jobs, I cannot stress the utter importance of actualizing your dreams and ambitions. Since this is a short article, I do not claim this as being an all encompassing methodology into tapping into your creative nature and combating fear. However, I hope it enables you to start actualizing the work that you are supposed to do in life.
