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face
Of which I have one, which I seem to have managed to locate this morning without any of yesterday’s problems. I should be grateful that I am not getting full out sick, merely having these spates of “speed sick” in which I am threatened with the flu but saved at the last minute.
And here I am…on a good day.
With my face, of which I have one.
And I have managed to pass my first milestone in pulling myself out of the financial hole. It’s funny when I think that for a few months there, writing for money was the hardest thing around – I did it, but it was like pulling teeth. Now, with effort and desire, I have a routine in which my worst and most unproductive days are meeting the same quota of articles as my best weeks before. I foresee a truck in my future sooner than I thought and a little less stress about bills.
Which brings me to yet another stage of balancing in which the demands for money to support a life are against the whole need for time for creative development. However, I have learned so much over the past few months that I am getting better at managing my time for that too and there is not this horrible sense of resentment or denial towards the time I have to give to support myself.
It is slowly coming together. Now, if I can get the next video funded that will even take it a step further.
So complicated.
I know someone (in passing) who ran smack up against “the industry” in trying to pull off a project and it all fell apart. For a lot of reasons, but everyone was focused on the fact that her face was not deemed adequate enough to sell the music.
Now, do I even have to say anything? I mean, this is the kind of crap I go on and on about. It is realistic to acknowledge the role that image plays in success in our culture. It is even fair to say that image trumps talent. If you have the machine to create the image you really don’t have to worry about what you put out there. Give it a driving a beat and no one will realize its schlock. Which, BTW, have you seen the video of Christopher Walken doing a a dramatic reading of Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’?
That was a total aside.
But, back to the topic…if we know these things, why do they hold such power and sway over us? Because we know them, but our irrational side still believes in them with all the emotional power that we contain. Intellectually, we understand what is going on and the “game” being played, but emotionally we have taken in the message that how we look is our worth and talent.
What really got me, yesterday, as this woman vented on Facebook, was that she is talented, she has done radio shows, she is admired and looked up to by many people, especially young woman. And in broadcasting her very, very emotional reaction to what was going on she gave credence to the idea of image being everything because the people who like her had to rush to comfort her rather than join her in a recognition of the irrationality and unfairness of what happened.
She reacted in a very real and valid way, yet…especially if you are in a situation in which you represent something to someone else – it was in appropriate because it did not respect the role she plays, in essence, as hero to many young woman. It created a shocking environment where someone else’s perception of how you look trumped all else. And…the only way people could figure out how to comfort her was to…you got it…reassure her on how she looked. The fact that she is a talented musician and poet was dropped to the ground for the most part.
Now…we are what we do. We are poets, musicians, artists, writers, accountants, administrators, managers, servers etc and so forth. We do these things. Some of us lead dual lives in what we do in half our life (at work) is not the sum total of what we do that defines who we are. That is fine, that is called working with reality.
But how we look…really, we don’t have much to do with that. You can spend all the time you want on makeup and clothing and it still does not change the fact that you didn’t do anything about how you look, its genetics. To base your identity in how you look is to cease to be, because you cease to do. The actions you perform to “make a image” don’t really “do” anything. They create nothing lasting, they bring you no new places, you do not learn and grow from them and the effect they have on others is transitory.
Yet we live in a world that idolizing the time spent on dressing something we didn’t have anything to do with and that willfully (and easily) will ignore what we have done.
Our language and actions can subtly underscore the validity of image over substance. And that is something that especially a woman in a position of influence must be mindful of because young woman who have not leaned one way or the other will follow your lead.
Makes me tired.
Speaking of tired, if you follow the BBC you may have noticed that after weeks of articles focused on the ills of fat, there was a spate of articles about the hatred and prejudice that fat people suffer in society and now, there is a rising trend of articles of how being fat can be good for you.
The only truth we have is in ourselves. The trick is to learn how to get past the truths that others have written in your body to read what you actually know. But that takes a willingness to not seek easy answers or, in fact, answers at all. Because truth consists not of answers, but of a statement that allows you to explore.
Coffee, coffee and then back to the grind.
I am determined today to do that quick test video and get it up today or tomorrow. I will let you know when it is available.
>
And here I am…on a good day.
With my face, of which I have one.
And I have managed to pass my first milestone in pulling myself out of the financial hole. It’s funny when I think that for a few months there, writing for money was the hardest thing around – I did it, but it was like pulling teeth. Now, with effort and desire, I have a routine in which my worst and most unproductive days are meeting the same quota of articles as my best weeks before. I foresee a truck in my future sooner than I thought and a little less stress about bills.
Which brings me to yet another stage of balancing in which the demands for money to support a life are against the whole need for time for creative development. However, I have learned so much over the past few months that I am getting better at managing my time for that too and there is not this horrible sense of resentment or denial towards the time I have to give to support myself.
It is slowly coming together. Now, if I can get the next video funded that will even take it a step further.
So complicated.
I know someone (in passing) who ran smack up against “the industry” in trying to pull off a project and it all fell apart. For a lot of reasons, but everyone was focused on the fact that her face was not deemed adequate enough to sell the music.
Now, do I even have to say anything? I mean, this is the kind of crap I go on and on about. It is realistic to acknowledge the role that image plays in success in our culture. It is even fair to say that image trumps talent. If you have the machine to create the image you really don’t have to worry about what you put out there. Give it a driving a beat and no one will realize its schlock. Which, BTW, have you seen the video of Christopher Walken doing a a dramatic reading of Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’?
That was a total aside.
But, back to the topic…if we know these things, why do they hold such power and sway over us? Because we know them, but our irrational side still believes in them with all the emotional power that we contain. Intellectually, we understand what is going on and the “game” being played, but emotionally we have taken in the message that how we look is our worth and talent.
What really got me, yesterday, as this woman vented on Facebook, was that she is talented, she has done radio shows, she is admired and looked up to by many people, especially young woman. And in broadcasting her very, very emotional reaction to what was going on she gave credence to the idea of image being everything because the people who like her had to rush to comfort her rather than join her in a recognition of the irrationality and unfairness of what happened.
She reacted in a very real and valid way, yet…especially if you are in a situation in which you represent something to someone else – it was in appropriate because it did not respect the role she plays, in essence, as hero to many young woman. It created a shocking environment where someone else’s perception of how you look trumped all else. And…the only way people could figure out how to comfort her was to…you got it…reassure her on how she looked. The fact that she is a talented musician and poet was dropped to the ground for the most part.
Now…we are what we do. We are poets, musicians, artists, writers, accountants, administrators, managers, servers etc and so forth. We do these things. Some of us lead dual lives in what we do in half our life (at work) is not the sum total of what we do that defines who we are. That is fine, that is called working with reality.
But how we look…really, we don’t have much to do with that. You can spend all the time you want on makeup and clothing and it still does not change the fact that you didn’t do anything about how you look, its genetics. To base your identity in how you look is to cease to be, because you cease to do. The actions you perform to “make a image” don’t really “do” anything. They create nothing lasting, they bring you no new places, you do not learn and grow from them and the effect they have on others is transitory.
Yet we live in a world that idolizing the time spent on dressing something we didn’t have anything to do with and that willfully (and easily) will ignore what we have done.
Our language and actions can subtly underscore the validity of image over substance. And that is something that especially a woman in a position of influence must be mindful of because young woman who have not leaned one way or the other will follow your lead.
Makes me tired.
Speaking of tired, if you follow the BBC you may have noticed that after weeks of articles focused on the ills of fat, there was a spate of articles about the hatred and prejudice that fat people suffer in society and now, there is a rising trend of articles of how being fat can be good for you.
The only truth we have is in ourselves. The trick is to learn how to get past the truths that others have written in your body to read what you actually know. But that takes a willingness to not seek easy answers or, in fact, answers at all. Because truth consists not of answers, but of a statement that allows you to explore.
Coffee, coffee and then back to the grind.
I am determined today to do that quick test video and get it up today or tomorrow. I will let you know when it is available.
>
Buy http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Providence-d%C3%A9mon/dp/1449526756/ref...">The Demon of Providence on Amazon.com
Video Release: October 2009copyright 2000-2009 Cassandra Tribe.
All rights reserved. For permission to use any of this material please contact info@loveandwords.com
cassandra tribe is a member of newsy.com
All rights reserved. For permission to use any of this material please contact info@loveandwords.com
cassandra tribe is a member of newsy.com
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