Jedi: Cavalry

First level understanding: The cavalry isn’t coming.

Second level understanding: There is no cavalry. There never was a cavalry.

Jedi level understanding: YOU are the cavalry.

Go make your art.

P.S. – I try to watch Mark Duplass’ “The Cavalry Isn’t Coming” 2015 SWSW Keynote speech once a year. It’s even more relevant now as it was then. Everything you need to know about why you must produce your own work is in this speech.

So What If They Ignore You?

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.” -Steve Martin

Great advice from Steve Matin above. Become a master at your craft.

However, I’d amend it to this:

“Be so good they can’t ignore you. All the while produce your own work so you don’t care if they ignore you. Because you’re too busy making things happen for yourself, your fellow artists and the audience you seek to serve.”

Confirm Optimism

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right”, -Henry Ford

“Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them.” -Richard Bach

“It’s a wonderful thing to be optimistic. It keeps you healthy and it keeps you resilient.” -Daniel Kahneman

Belief is a choice. And once you choose your belief, you will inevitably find and favor evidence that supports your belief while ignoring evidence that counters it. This is confirmation bias at work. And like any cognitive bias, the key is awareness.

But if you had to choose, why not choose optimism?

Once you choose, then find evidence to support your optimism.

Or better yet, create your own evidence for others to find and be optimistic.

RIP Val Kilmer

“There is no normal life, there’s just life. You live it.” -Val Kilmer

“The trick to being a good actor is getting so involved in your character that the camera disappears, the 50 bored guys eating doughnuts disappear, friends disappear. To get to that point when you don’t have to think about it, you’re just acting and reacting in those circumstances.” -Val Kilmer

“That’s the joy of art – it should be dangerous and challenging but it’s just art – it’s safe.” -Val Kilmer

Sadly, Val Kilmer passed away yesterday. He was 65.

I’ve written about Val twice prior on this blog. Here and Here. Not because he was a movie star (though he was that), but about his approach to art and life. He left it all out there and was unafraid to take massive risks in service of his craft. In some cases, just to audition for a part! I deeply respected this quality.

For all the indelible performances he gave on film, quite possibly his greatest triumph, was on the stage. As Mark Twain in a one person show which was of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen. It was hilarious and heartbreaking and absolutely mesmerizing. A total passion project.

Click Here to watch a clip from it.

Thank you Val Kilmer for all the great performances and your inspiring work.

We will miss you Iceman.

P.S. – If you haven’t seen, definitely watch the documentary “Val” on Amazon Prime. It’s incredible.

Fooled Vs. The Fool

“It takes inordinate courage to introspect, to confront oneself, to accept one’s limitations—scientists are seeing more and more evidence that we are specifically designed by mother nature to fool ourselves.” -Nassim Taleb

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” -Richard P. Feynman

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish. Never let go of your appetite to go after new ideas, new experiences, and new adventures.” -Steve Jobs

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” -William Shakespeare, As You Like It

I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again, no, no -song, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who

“I think it’s my job to risk looking foolish. One of the things I’ve learned from the actors I’ve worked with is you don’t get something for nothing. If you don’t risk looking foolish, you’ll never do anything special.” -Ethan Hawke

Don’t fool yourself or other people.

But to do anything great and lasting and worthwhile, you do need to stay foolish.

“Aye, there’s the rub.”

P.S. – This Ethan Hawke TED Talk. “Give yourself permission to play the fool.” Try to revisit this video at least once per year. Perhaps every April 1st.

Love Is All You Need

Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothing you can say, but you can learn
How to play the game
It’s easy
Nothing you can make that can’t be made
No one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothing you can do, but you can learn
How to be you in time
It’s easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Nothing you can know that isn’t known
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown
There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where
You’re meant to be
It’s easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
All you need is love (all together now!)
All you need is love (everybody!)
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need (love is all you need)
Yesterday (love is all you need)
Oh (love is all you need)
(Love is all you need)
(Love is all you need) -song, “Love Is All You Need” by The Beatles

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” -1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

“Love Is All You Need” is not some trite saying or catchy, feel good song.

It really is the answer to everything you seek.

Including the question: “Am I on the right path?”

If you have love and are doing it for love, then a resounding “Yes!”

Because regardless of obstacles or suffering or circumstances, love is all you need to know that you’re fully capable. And that you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.

But without love, you have nothing.

It’s About The Change

Before deciding to embark on a passion project (like writing a novel for example), don’t worry about how long it will take. It takes what it takes. (This can be your personal mantra as well as your response when people ask you, “How much longer?” Or “Is it finished yet?”)

And trust that even if it takes a lifetime to complete, or you never complete it, or you quit and decide to do something else, that the time spent on the pursuit was well worth it.

The reason being is that it’s not about the outcome. It never was (even if you thought it was at the outset). It’s about how much you will grow and change as a result of the pursuit. And you will grow and change. Right down to the cellular level.

P.S. – H/t to my friend Sue for inspiring this post.

How Do You Want To Go Out?

“Love never fails. Character never quits. And with patience and persistence, dreams do come true.” -Pete Maravich

“Basketball is a beautiful art form. The court is our canvas, and we are the artists.” -Pete Maravich

“They don’t pay you a million dollars for two-hand chest passes.” -Pete Maravich

“The simple act of opening a bottle of wine has brought more happiness to the human race than all the collective governments in the history of earth.” -Jim Harrison

I’ve written before about the benefits of adopting a regular Memento Mori practice. (You can find countless articles espousing it as well.) The thought is that by regularly reflecting on our own mortality, we’ll gain perspective as well as be freed up and energized to take that creative risk, make that important decision, start that passion project, etc.

But what about reflecting on exactly how we’d like to die? I mean the specifics of it all. And maybe using that reflection to ensure we’re doing what we love. Or at the very least, doing it more often.

For example, one of my childhood basketball idols was “Pistol” Pete Maravich (My Numero Uno is Magic Johnson). After a Hall of Fame career, the Pistol sadly died of a heart attack at age 40 playing pickup basketball at a Pasadena gym.

I remember reading that and thinking: If I had the opportunity to choose (and of course, none of us do), I’d like to go out like that. Or acting in a play. Talk about making a grand exit!

I’m extremely fortunate and grateful that I still do both activities and will continue to do both until I no longer can. (Perhaps that means I’m on the right track?)

So, what will it be for you?

How would you like to go out? Are you doing that activity now?

If not, why not?

And if not now, when?…

P.S. – H/t to the always excellent Substack “Poetic Outlaws” for this post about the poet and writer, Jim Harrison, who died in 2016 at the age of 78. “He was found dead at his writing desk like a true poet, a pen still in his hand, mid-composition of what would become his final, untitled poem.”

P.P.S. – The book, “Pistol: The Life Of Pete Maravich” is a magnificent read. I highly recommend. And check out this highlight reel. Look at the socks!

Three Big Questions

“I said, ‘Brother you have to ask yourself two questions, Who am I? And how may I become myself?’ That’s basic person-centered therapeutics. You want the client to feel important, to feel that he or she is in control of the healing process. Remember that shit.” –The Sellout, a novel by Paul Beatty

“WHO am I?”

“WHAT do I want?”

“WHY do I want it?”

These questions are not just for the writer or actor to answer in the story they’re telling or the character they’re portraying, but every person in life must answer these questions for themselves. Or at least continually ask. As the value is in the attempt.

Otherwise, in an era where all are relentlessly vying for your time and attention, the story will get written for you.