"To be or not to be, that is the free choice." Happy Cow
The other day I was taking a break from annoying you and idly flicking through the channels on TV, when I stumbled across a programme in which the well-known actor Kevin Spacey was talking to aspiring youngsters about his career. Those who are familiar with Spacey's work will know that he has played a very wide range of roles. His hunger for more was readily apparent, always on the look out for something new that would stretch him and take his astonishing art to new places.
Now imagine for a moment the Ultimate Actor, totally unconstrained by time, space, script or budget - free to play infinite roles infinitely. Which roles do you think the Ultimate Actor would choose to play? Would the Ultimate Actor choose to play just shiny hero characters? Would the Ultimate Actor choose just scripts with happy endings? Would the Ultimate Actor choose only those roles which (s)he thought would be easy to play?
Now, back to Spacey. Do you think that a great actor like Spacey ever gets sick of acting? Do you think that he ever wants to move into solitude, away from the limelight, to re-charge his batteries ready for the next role?
"Consider the progression of an artist's career as (s)he moves from fairly simple but still wonderful creations to more intricacy and complexity, subtlety and nuance, myriad shades and colours, light and dark. One might say the artist's career evolves. Now take a look at Life. What an utterly magnificent artist!"
Sometimes I stumble across voices which seem to be incessantly saying: "Be still!" I like to refer to them as the 'Tired of Life' voices. Like an actor or other artist close to creative burn-out, they clamour for rest, for silence, for solitude. At the other end of the spectrum are what I like to refer to as the 'wannabes'. "Become more! Become more! Become more! Become more!" they relentlessly encourage.
So which group of voices is right? Which advice should one follow? Try one of my favourite answers on for a moment: neither-both. There is no need to choose one or the other. One can simply alternate. Play. Rest. Play. Rest. Play. Rest. Play. Rest. Play ....... stop me when I get to infinity.
In the interview mentioned at the beginning, Spacey also referred to some of his earlier career in which he played some roles which he may have chosen to look upon with a little embarrassment or regret. But Spacey had no regrets whatsoever, knowing that every single step along the way was inevitable and necessary to bring him to where he is today.
Sometimes voices can be heard complaining against the unfairness of life. "I don't want to be this! I want to be something else! I want her life! I want his wife!"
Patience, Ultimate Actor, patience. You have eternity. You will be something else. You will be everything else. Every possible role infinite imagination can imagine. You will be everything you wanna be, and if you don't wanna be, the Ultimate Hammock awaits.
"It is the instinct of exploration, the love of the unknown, that brings me into existence. It is in the nature of being to see adventure in becoming, as it is in the very nature of becoming to seek peace in being. This alternation of being and becoming is inevitable; but my home is beyond." Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
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