Dear Valentine,
I don’t know your name yet. I’m not sure what you look like, where you’re from, or what you do. I’m not even sure where you are right now. To be fair, you don’t know these things about me either. Here’s what I do know: you’re getting here as fast as you can, you’re not giving up on finding me, and I’m not giving up on finding you. And when we do finally meet, I’ll know and you’ll know and we’ll marvel at what took us so long to sync up our timing. We’ll be glad we didn’t settle for someone else. We’ll be glad we spent so much time and effort improving who are individually so that we can be good to each other. I’m spending this Valentine’s Day with good friends, good food, and plenty of wine. I hope you are, too. I have a feeling by this time next year our paths will have crossed and we’ll realize that actually we’ve been on the same path all along. We just started at opposite ends of it. I’ll meet you in the middle and then we’ll decide where to go next. Together. It’ll be an adventure. Until then, happy Valentine’s Day.
A long time ago, I had a dream of being an artistic director of a theatre company. I was the chair of a theatre group while I was an undergrad at Penn and it was one of the best experiences of my life. My first theater job in New York was at the Roundabout Theatre Company and I greatly admired Todd Haimes, the Artistic Director at RTC. Like me, he came from a business background and traditional education outside of the arts. (He’s also a Penn alum.) He applied those skills effectively and built RTC into a powerhouse in the theater world. I wanted to be just like him.
After six years in the Broadway world, I lost my way. I couldn’t see my way past the ugly underside of entertainment. The egos, greed, broken dreams, and flat-out cruelty. I was hurt by it and I saw a lot of other people get hurt, too. I went running from it as fast as I could. I wrote off theater as something that didn’t deserve my attention and effort. I was young. I didn’t understand that I could change a system I didn’t like. I didn’t know that there was another way, that I didn’t have to accept an industry as it was. I didn’t believe I could make something different. It took me a long time to realize that you could be part of a system and not be defined by it.
That dream of being an artistic director never really died. It was placed on a burner so far to the back that it almost disappeared but somehow it kept fanning its own flame so that I could eventually follow the light and find my way back to it. That’s what I’m trying to do now, and my play, Sing After Storms, is the first step in that direction for a branch of my content development company, Chasing Down the Muse.
I want to bring a more human approach, dare I be so bold as to say an approach with more kindness and a sense of justice, to an industry that is defined by anything but kindness and justice. I’d like to give people a way in based on their passion for and commitment to producing work that inspires people, a kind of haven that celebrates them and their work, and lifts them up rather than taking them down. This summer I’ll work on two new plays that I’ve started to create, and I hope Sing After Storms has a long, healthy, spherical life after the New York City production in June that leads the charge to build this new way of creating theater.
That’s the goal. That’s where I’m going, and I hope you’ll hop on board. Interested? Drop me a line at christa@chasingdownthemuse.com.
An unglamorous Matthew McConaughey in The Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey was on CBS Sunday Morning to talk about his un-branding. In a world where branding in all its many forms seem inescapable, it was refreshing to hear someone talk about chucking it all out the window and what’s come of his efforts. Known as a guy’s guy / romantic lead, McConaughey is nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Dallas Buyers Club in which he plays a homophobic rodeo cowboy who is diagnosed with HIV and given 30 days to live. He meets, befriends, and starts an illegal business with a transsexual who also has HIV. In Texas. Based on a true story. What?!
While Dallas Buyers Club is now a contender for several Oscars, for a long time it seemed destined to never see the light of day. 137 potential producers turned it down over several years before it found the funding, and the week before shooting was set to begin, they still didn’t have all the money they needed. They pushed on anyway. They just wouldn’t give up.
McConaughey was committed to the making of this film and the remaking of his own career in the process. For two years he turned down everything that fit the image that made him famous because he wanted to send a clear and persistent message that he would only take challenging roles that scared him. He wanted a complete career shake-up. While that was a personal choice, he certainly didn’t want to be largely unemployed for two years. Yet, that’s what it took. Two years of no work to prove that he was serious about taking his career in a new direction.
When I first heard this I thought, “Big deal. He’s probably got so much money that if he never works again he and his family will be just fine. Was he really taking such a big risk?”
And then I thought about what a shark tank the world of work can be, to say nothing of the world of work in Hollywood. He could have kept right on doing what worked, what he was good at, and raking in the money in the process. No one would have batted an eye at that and he would have gotten plenty of pats on the back for a job well done. Instead, he risked failing in a big way and throwing away an image and a career that have served him well that couldn’t have been recovered. They just didn’t feel good to him anymore, so he tossed them in favor of the unknown, something that made him feel alive again. Dallas Buyers Club is the result of that work. Was it worth it? All signs point to yes.
When I grow up, I hope I’m as mature as my dog, Phineas. His resilience never fails to amaze me. As a dog who was mistreated and abandoned as a puppy, he still found a way to love and trust people without hesitation. Two weeks ago, he was bit on the ear by another dog in the park. After some veterinary TLC, he marched outside for his walk the next morning with gusto to greet his neighbors, human and canine alike, in that same park without a trace of fear nor anxiety. Yesterday, we saw the dog who bit him and though he didn’t go bounding over to say hello, he also didn’t let that dog phase him one bit.
I think of all the times I stopped trusting people and held onto fear because of past hurt and betrayal. Despite the size and complexity of the human brain, dogs have us beat in matters of the heart. They figure out, in very short order, how to heal, forgive, and love again. They don’t admonish others nor themselves for mistakes and injustices. They recognize that something happened, they learn, and then they move on without the malice, anger, and disappointment that often emotionally cripples people for years. If we could follow their lead, this world would be a happier, healthier place.
Have you ever had an idea for a project literally follow you around? That’s what happened to be with my play, Sing After Storms. I wrote it because the characters wouldn’t leave me alone. I couldn’t stop thinking about them so I had to work on their story. And they’ve been with me ever since. I turn their decisions over in my mind the same way I analyze my own choices. I never get tired of that project because those characters and the world they inhabit keep me endlessly fascinated. To me, they live and breathe as much as I do.
Maybe you have a project like that – something you want to do or make or try that just won’t leave you alone. You think about it, dream about it, constantly tinker with the idea of it. That’s what you need to work on. Maybe you’ll make some money with it. Maybe it will just have to be a labor of love. But don’t let the money, or lack there of, make your choices for you. There’s a bit of magic in things and thoughts and actions that nag at us, they force us to hear them and recognize them for what they. Let them be your focus for a while and see what comes of it. Give them a shot.
On a recent episode of How I Met Your Mother, one of the characters feels lost and unsure what to do with her life. She got some powerful advice from a stranger: “What’s the one thing you want to do with your life? Now let everything you do be in service of that.”
This is a question I’ve been wrestling with a lot lately. What’s your one contribution, the one thing you really want to point to and say, “I did that. That’s why I was here.” Don’t make any considerations other than what you want. This isn’t about what you can do, but what you want to do. Got your answer?
Mine is to create content in many forms that inspires people to live exactly the lives they want to live. I want to be known as someone who did that for every person who crosses my path in some way.
The most important example of your work, your art, your craft, and your passion is your life. You plan, design, build, and test it every minute of every day. You try, learn, and recalibrate. You keep what works and you change what doesn’t. Let your life tell your story and let it be an example of what happens when you use your time to work on what you love.
Yesterday, CNN reported that Russian authorities are poisoning stray dogs in Sochi, Russia leading up to the Olympics. My friend, Amanda Hirsch, sent me the link asking me to speak out about it and of course I did. As an animal lover and proud pet parent to Phin, I couldn’t let that story pass without saying something. There’s been a lot of coverage on the horrific human rights violations in Russia and now we know that same violence and injustice extends to innocent animals, too.
Dear Mr. Putin, Mahatma Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” If that’s true Mr. Putin, you and your nation are stuck in the moral dark ages and I want to help you evolve.
I love everyone. People, canines, felines, and just about every animal there is. But you’re making it really hard for me to love you. I heard about what you’re doing to stray dogs in Sochi. I was reading CNN.com and I saw that you’re rounding them up and poisoning them before the Olympics begin. This issue is personal for me because I used to be a stray dog. A policeman found me alone, scared, and starving in the woods. He rescued me, brought me to the local animal shelter, and that’s where my mom adopted me. We’ve been together for 3 and a half years. She rescued me, and I rescued her right back.
The Olympics is a sacred event, one you should be honored and humbled to host. It’s an event where the very best athletes driven only by talent, passion, and raw determination come together to compete and celebrate. This is a time to rally your people, to rally people all over the world in support of Russia, as a spotlight shines on your nation and its rich heritage.
It’s no secret that the Olympic games bring a wealth of funds to the host nation, especially to the host city. You’ve built beautiful new resorts. You’ve constructed incredible venues to host these games. This is a time to use that money and attention to fix things in the community that need fixing. You’re wasting it by putting a veneer on the stray dog issue in Sochi rather than using it to actually fix the problem.
You can do better than this. You have to do better than this. Establish shelters, educate people on how to treat and care for their animals, and create spay / neuter programs as well as affordable veterinary care. Pass laws that make animal abuse a crime.
We can’t speak up for ourselves. We need people, people like you, to stand up for us, to protect us, and to take care for us. Please, Mr. Putin. Poison’s not the answer. Love and compassion and concern. Those are the answers. Those are always the answers. We’re remarkably forgiving, grateful, and loyal creatures. I promise you, once you show a dog love, compassion, and care, he or she will give it all back to you, and then some. I know you’ll do the right thing and help all the dogs of Sochi so thanks in advance for your cooperation and your future efforts to give all of them a chance at a long, happy, and healthy life. This issue is worth your time and attention, and so are we. You’ll see. Just give us a chance. We won’t let you down.
If you need to reach me for the next two weeks chances are I’ll be immersed in all things Sochi. I’m an Olympics freak because every athlete in every event is there for one reason: raw passion for their sport. It’s an incredible testament to the power of focus, commitment, and determination. If you need a shot of inspiration over the next few weeks, flip on the TV to NBC and you’ll find all the motivation you need to reach for your own dreams.
A lotus can’t grow in clear pristine water. It needs the nutrients from the mud to bloom and thrive. Our lives are like that, too. Life is messy. People and tasks compete for our time and attention. We wrestle with the tension between what we think we have to do and what we want to do. Choosing how to spend our time is the toughest thing we will ever do and the answer won’t always be clear.
And that’s okay. We need the obstacles, the adversity, the challenges to show us what matters most to us, to help us build skills, to make us strong and resilient. Everything that is happening to us now, everything, is preparing us for the road that lies ahead. Embrace it and don’t give up.
