“What we have done for ourselves dies with us, what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” -Albert Pike
Heroes sometimes get recognized for their heroic acts while they’re alive and with us.
But more often than not (much like many great artists), their heroism is not fully recognized and appreciated until they’re gone.
For it is then, armed with time, distance and perspective, that we can truly see how amazing they were. How many unnoticed, and unsung, daily, heroic acts they did. The full breadth and scope of their life comes into the light.
To all the unsung heroes out there–especially if they’re still alive with us–let us take a moment to today to thank and be grateful for them.
P.S. – Today’s is the one year anniversary of my hero, my best friend, my dad’s passing. This post is in honor of him and all the unsung heroes out there. Thank you for everything.
The more specific the ask, the more likely you are to get the help you seek.
Do your research ahead of time and drill down to exactly what you need and how and why they best can help.
(Keep in mind that just like you, everyone’s extremely busy and working on things that they’re equally passionate about. Have empathy for that. Including if you don’t hear back or they can’t fulfill your request.)
“But after I got them to leave and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn’t any good. It was like saying good-bye to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.” -Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Think of a great film or play or book or any piece of art.
What do you love about it? What really sticks with you?
If you were to tell someone why you loved it, chances are you would only focus on a few things. A few takeaways. It might be a scene, a couple of sentences, a line of dialogue, a silent moment, a simple gesture, maybe just a feeling the art evoked in you.
Here’s three takeaways that come to mind for me…
-John Malkovich pointing at Gary Sinise in True West (the PBS video) and saying “Ha, Ha!…Ha, Ha!”
-A production of Jitneyat the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood where Booster breaks down in agony upon hearing his father’s death, then walks over to answer the phone with a simple, “Car service”, and then an immediate black out. (I was stunned and wrecked.)
-The eerie squeak amidst the silence of the Old Man’s rocking chair in a production of Fool For Love at Stage Left Theatre in Chicago.
These takeaway moments stay with people forever. They can literally change lives. They hold enormous power.
While you can’t predict if your art will have these takeaways, they’re always a possibility. That chance, that possibility alone, is a reason to go make your art.
”We have a strategic plan. It’s called doing things.” -Herb Kelleher
“Done is better than perfect.” -Sheryl Sandberg
I was on a recent conference call and after everyone spoke at length about the agenda at hand, one person said, “The only way we’ll ever really know if we have something, is to find a deal and do the deal together.”
He was absolutely right. The best way to learn anything is to DO it.
The next time you have an idea and interest about something, find a way to turn it into a project. Complete with work plan, deadlines and some tangible markers of progress and overall success.
The knowledge gained (including the failures), the experience, and the satisfaction of completing something, will be priceless.
No matter how great your art, your product, you public policy, your generous act, your thoughtful suggestion, etc…you can rest assured, at least half the people won’t like or agree with it.
That’s ok. It’s not for them.
If you need a statistical goal to shoot for and feel like you’ve succeeded in your chosen endavour, aim for 51 percent.
While that gets you an F in school, for most things in life, it’s an A.
“He felt an uncertainty in the air, a feeling of change and of loss and of the gain of new and unfamiliar things.” –The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
There’s an age old story about optimists and pessimists which goes something like this…
It’s Christmas morning and two young brothers rush towards the Christmas tree to discover their gifts. On one side lay piles of wonderful toys for one of the boys. The boy does nothing. He just looks at the pile and says, “What’s the point? They’ll all be broken in a day or two.“
The other boy’s gift, on the other side of the tree, is nothing but a pile of manure. The boy quickly starts digging through the manure. He digs and digs and digs, all the while joyfully telling his dour sibling, “There must be a pony in here somewhere!”
Events are events. You don’t get to control them.
Your attitude about those events however, is entirely up to you. You get huge control over that.
So what’s it gonna be?…Will you keep searching for the pony?…Or give up before you even start?…You decide.
“At the age of six years, I amazed my parents and their friends by my gift, very much of the sort that mediums have, of ‘seeing things in another way’. I have always seen what others do not see; and what they did see, I could not…I had a paranoiac spirit.” -Salvador Dali
“In 1851, Melville calved an enormous spouting beast of a book, Moby-Dick, which involved a crazed sea captain hell-bent on destroying the whale that tore off his leg. The book sold poorly. After two more failed novels, Melville, a father of four, ditched prose for poetry, grew ever more melancholic and insolvent, and became a customs inspector on the New York docks, a job he held for nineteen years. His death in 1891 went virtually unnoticed…’Melville was a nineteenth-century author writing for a twentieth-century audience,” explains Columbia professor Andrew Delbanco, author of the 2005 biography Melville: His World and Work. ‘He used stream of consciousness long before Stein or Joyce; he acknowledged America’s predatory power as well as its great promise; he defied convention in writing about sex; and perhaps most shocking of all, he took seriously the possibility of a godless universe. In his time, there was a limited market for these insights and innovations.” -excerpt from article, How Scholars Rescued the Author of Moby-Dick from the Waters of Oblivion in Columbia Magazine
“If you see tremendous beauty or tremendous pain where other people see little or nothing at all, you’re confronted with big feelings all the time. These emotions can be confusing and overwhelming. When those around you don’t see what you see and feel what you feel, this can lead to a sense of isolation and a general feeling of not belonging, of otherness. These charged emotions, powerful when expressed in the work, are the same dark clouds that beg to be numbed to allow sleep or to get out of bed and face the day in the morning. It’s a blessing and a curse.” -Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
Artists see things before anyone else does. Whether that’s making art ahead of its time, or art that influences science and other fields (like Salvador Dali did as this article points out), or setting trends (e.g. fashion, neighborhoods), or being prophets that call out injustice and hypocrisy, artists very often lead the way.
Unfortunately, this gift of “seeing” can come with a heavy burden and price. You can be ignored, criticized or feel like a failure.
But don’t let that stop you.
Our world needs artists now more than ever.
Go make your art.
Go lead the way.
Thank you for your courage and your heart and your vulnerability.
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” -Lao Tzu
For any journey you’re on–let’s say climbing a mountain–to get to the next level, you do have to let go of your current (often a comfortable and safe) spot.
Bilbo had to leave the Shire too.
P.S. – When you read the Lao Tzu quote above, what comes to mind for you? Let me know your thoughts!
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