Passion & Comic Artistry
Posted on 11 January 2013
Our society is being led by the church of Hollywood and marketing. Passion is presented as a good thing, a necessary thing, if you want to get ahead in life. Then passion is represented in the media as a mixture of anger, sexuality, and obsession.
This combination makes for dramatic stories with a lot of emotional punch, but it leads to an unbalanced and ultimately tragic life. Sometimes we willingly go with it because tragedy is seen as important.
The lessons we learn from tragedy may be important. Tragedy itself is not.
You do not need to go looking for or manufacture tragedy to make your life important. Tragedy finds you. It is not exceptional, despite the impression you may receive from disease of the week movies. You are not unique for experiencing it.
Everyone will have painful relationships. Everyone will know people who die. Everyone will know illness. What is exceptional, what is important, is finding wisdom within life’s challenges. This is why I choose comic storytelling for my artistic path. Tragedy is when you are caught up in suffering. Comedy can arise when you have perspective and insight.
Obsessed people live in an apparently easy to understand life, given their one-pointed thinking. But that doesn’t make for good art or good comedy. A life rich in experience and deep with insight makes for great comedy.
Don’t let some motivational idiot or new age guru lead you to burn-out and self destruction. Don’t buy their images of extreme behaviour as “truly living life”. Truly living life has more to do with savouring life, engaging with life, being open to all sorts of people and experience, and learning to find equanimity in all circustances so that you are more present to learn and to help and to write comedy.
To succeed in the arts you need to be committed to your vision. Your vision needs to be something that helps you to feel happy, content, and fulfilled. If you are going for something that will make you feel important, then you are heading the wrong direction.
Peace and kindness,
Katherine
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