The Vs. Studio Blog

Yeah, runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream -song, “Runnin’ Down A Dream” by Tom Petty

“What if my best isn’t good enough?”

That’s a scary question to ask yourself.

And it’s why most people don’t attempt to do hard things.

Because it’s far easier to lie to yourself. You can always blame circumstances or external forces or hide behind the excuse that “If I really wanted to, I could’ve done it or been it.”

And as much as I love a great movie montage, life just doesn’t work that way. It’s not “If I do this, then I get this.” The reality and the big risk is that you could go all out, bust your ass, give it everything you got…and still come up short. In fact the odds say, especially when it comes to commercial success, that’s probably what will happen.

But you know what? At least you tried. You went for it. You chased down a dream. You showed true courage.

And no matter what happens, you’ll always be able to live knowing that.

P.S. – This scene.

“Compassion is our capacity to relate in a tender and sympathetic way to what we perceive…Compassion means to be with, feel with, suffer with. Classical Buddhist texts describe compassion as the quivering of the heart, a visceral tenderness in the face of suffering. In the Buddhist tradition, one who has realized the fullness of compassion and lives from compassion is called a bodhisattva. The bodhisattva’s path and teaching is that when we allow our hearts to be touched by suffering—our own or another’s—our natural compassion flowers.” -Richard Rohr

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” -Elie Wiesel

“To love is to will the good of the other.” -Saint Thomas Aquinas

The reason why the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference, is because love is not a feeling or emotion (like hate is). Per Aquinas, love is a willful ACT. Thus by definition, the opposite of act or action is NON-action, which is, indifference.

So, how to overcome indifference? Here are some keys or steps…

Step One…NOTICE. Pay attention. Break through all the world’s distraction. See the signal amidst the noise.

Step Two…TAKE IN. Allow yourself to be moved with compassion. One of the beautiful things about art is that it helps engender empathy for the human condition.

Step Three…ASK. When you notice and are moved by something, ask yourself what if anything, you can do about it. Don’t just be interested. Think hard about what you can do to influence. Write down a bunch of ideas.

Step Four…You probably can guess this one…ACT. Based on your ideation, take one small step in the name of love. Voila! You are no longer indifferent.

Make the work for yourself. (You can have an ideal reader or viewer in mind, but ultimately, do it for you.)

Share the work for others.

The poem below is so good, I’ll just let it speak for itself…

“I Dreamed I Lived In Austin” by Albert Huffstickler

I dreamed I lived in Austin
with legs like a sparrow
and a hungry heart.
I was looking for God
but kept finding people—
strange little people
with pieces of their bodies missing:
an arm, a leg, a nose, a belly button.

They kept offering me ham sandwiches
and telling me I was going to die.
I’d already died, I told them,
chewing mightily and wishing I
 had some water.

That was just a preview, they said.
Next time, you’ll really die.
And they marched ahead of me,
flip-flop, as I combed the streets
searching for God.

Suddenly it was night
and I was standing on the edge of town
alone.

A cold moon shone over me
and the lights of a little café
gleamed down the road.

An old man wobbled up to me and said,
“Well, here I am.”
“God?” I asked.
“Who else? Got a quarter?”
“Yes.” I gave it to him.
“Let’s make it to that diner,” he said.
“Refills are free.
I’ll tell you anything you want.”
“For just a quarter?” I asked
God chuckled. “Got a cigarette?”
I gave him one.

We made it to the café and ordered coffee,
hunched in a booth in the warm room,
the lights soft and comforting.
“Anything special you want?” God asked,
taking another cigarette from the pack
and lighting it with my Bic.
“Love,” I said. I started to cry.
“O.K.,” he said, patting my arm
with a bony hand.

The room vanished and once more
I was in Austin. I was fifty-four
with legs like a sparrow
and a hungry heart.
She stood before me, eyes
misty and tender.

“God sent me,” she said.
“I know.”
She offered me a ham sandwich
and told me I was going to die.
“But not for a while,” she said
and took my arm.
“Good enough,” I said.
“I’m not going to die for a while,
I have you,
And God owes me a quarter
And two cigarettes and”—
I felt in my pockets—
“a Bic lighter.
Would you like to hear
what I dreamed last night?
“Yes.”
“Well, I dreamed I lived in Austin.
I was fifty-four
I was looking for God
but kept finding people.”
“And love,” she added.
“Yes, love,” I agreed.
“I think it’s a set,” she said.

Many thanks to the excellent substack, Poetic Outlaws, for this poem. I’m a huge fan and subscriber. Check it out!

The excellent chart above is a comprehensive list of our cognitive biases.

Whether we admit it or not, when it comes to making decisions, we’re all prone to one or several of these. Factors like our background, current circumstances, age, peer group, life experiences, etc…play a part in determining which are the biggest culprits.

So, what to do with this intel?

Here’s a proposition…

For the next big decision you have to make, before deciding, do the following:

First, bring awareness to it. This is key. Be aware that we’re all subject to preconceived notions and cognitive biases.

Second, take a pause.

Third, identify which specific bias from the chart above, might be in play.

Fourth, give the decision some careful thought. Pros and cons, fear setting, and journaling are some good tools at your disposal. Utilize them.

Fifth, if you have a trusted friend or two, talk it out loud with them. (They may also shed some light on which cognitive bias most affects you.)

Then, decide.

You might still make the exact same decision as before. That’s cool. At least you now made it with eyes (and mind) wide open.

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-7)

“To love is to will the good of the other as other.” -Saint Thomas Aquinas

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” -Gustave Flaubert

“You know when you’re walking in the woods on a dark night…and you see a light shining far off in the distance…and you think to yourself: even though I’m tired and it’s dark and the branches are scratching my face…everything is gonna be okay…because I have that light? And I’ll get there eventually? Well, I work–you know this–I work harder than anyone else in this county. I mean, I’m beaten down, Sonya, I suffer unbearably…but I have no light in the distance. I can’t see anything up ahead.” -Astrov to Sonya in Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov (adaptation by Annie Baker)

True love is reckless love.

It’s not “What’s in it for me?”. It’s “What’s in it for THEM?”

True love is not transactional. Not rational. Not logical. It’s out of line with most worldly thinking.

It requires putting yourself wholly out there. Going out on the ledge. Walking blindly through the forest.

That’s reckless.

But when it comes to love and art, it’s the only way to be.

“Each thing is not going to top everything that came before it. Progress is rarely smooth.” -Seth Godin

You turn something in because it’s due and think to yourself, “Not my best.”

First of all, there’s only one “best.”

Second, you’re aware. That’s good. You didn’t lie to yourself or anyone else.

Third, you turned it in anyway. You didn’t hide. You shipped your work.

Maybe it’s not your best.

But it’s something.

Which is a whole helluva lot better than nothing.

Often the reason we don’t make the change we want isn’t because we’re ignorant, it’s because deep down we’re indifferent.

You don’t need more knowledge.

You might just need to care more.

And if you’re the one trying to convince others to make a change or back a cause or give attention to your art, then you have to get them to care. You do it by aiming for their heart. Not their head.

“…I don’t know nothin’ about Pele. I’m watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball and his feet. Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in – upside down and backwards… the goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. Pele gets excited and he rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium waving it around his head. Everybody’s screaming in Spanish. I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying….That’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I happen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings, up to a better place to be, if only for a minute… let me tell ya, kid – it was pretty goddamned glorious. It ain’t the six minutes… it’s what happens in that six minutes.” -Elmo (played by J.C. Quinn) speaking to Loudon (played by Matthew Modine) in the film Vision Quest

Follow your dream. Make your art. Pursue excellence.

In doing so, you might just lift yourself and others to a “pretty goddamned glorious place.” A place you and no one else ever thought possible.

P.S. – This scene. And this scene. All the motivation you need. Go make it happen!

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs

“I can’t call a person a hard worker just because I hear they read and write, even if working at it all night. Until I know what a person is working for, I can’t deem them industrious. . . . I can if the end they work for is their own ruling principle, having it be and remain in constant harmony with Nature.” -Epictetus, Discourses

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” -Maya Angelou

“Yes, I’ve made a great deal of dough from my fiction, but I never set a single word down on paper with the thought of being paid for it…I have written because it fulfilled me. Maybe it paid off the mortgage on the house and got the kids through college, but those things were on the side–I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for the joy, you can do it forever.” -Stephen King

Choose heart work over hard work. It wins every time.

If you find and commit to doing the heart work, the hard work takes care of itself.

P.S. – This post was inspired by a line of dialogue from Oliver Mayer’s dazzling new play GHOST WALTZ (image above). It’s playing through June 2nd at LATC. Go see it!