The Last Thing I Want To Be Is Forgettable
"I have to admit when I first walked in the X (Experimental Theatre at the University of Minnesota) last Monday, I was a little leery. For some reason, I knew right away we were going to get in a circle and hold hands. Not that I'm opposed to that sort of thing, or anything, I just need a little time to warm up. It's not always easy for me to embrace new things. In fact, that is one of the things that I like about theatre: the perpetual challenge, the ongoing dare, the prodding, the danger, the cliff. In a way I like that it is not easy ... and then, my fears were of course realized, and I was holding hands with people I didn't know and there was this profoundly sensitive man asking us to reveal to the group something that mattered to us. My heart started to pound. What was I going to say? Should I make something up? No, I'm not a very good liar (and I call myself an actor!). Should I say something that kind of matters to me, perhaps I could say something general, like the election and just sort of fudge my answer a bit so that everybody just nods in agreement (like, say something that everybody is supposed to care about) and then my turn would be over, and yes, I won't stand out, but this time that would be a good thing. I could blend in and be forgettable.
No. That's not me. The last thing I want to be is forgettable.
So, right there I decided. I am going to try this. I'll say what's really on my mind. [expletive] it. These people wil know, but there's no freedom unless you're vulnerable first. So, I did it. Then I turned a corner. I realized that sharing something intimate or important to me or something that really matters to me doesn't necessarily have to be anything sexual or a profound weakness of mine or anything like that, it just needs to matter enough that I need to share it."
~ Chase Korte
All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.
My general formula for my students is 'Follow your bliss.' Find where it is, and don't be afraid to follow it.
~ Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, pp. 120, 149
We succeeded in taking (a picture of Earth from the outskirts of our solar system), and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
~ Carl Sagan
In lieu of flowers
- Go to World Vision Gifts, scroll down and click on the picture for "Hope for Sexually Exploited Girls" or click here.
- Follow the directions.
- If you would like a gift card sent to the Korte family, please check the YES box when asked "Would you like gift cards mailed to you and/or someone else".
19031 Zane Street NW
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