This is a photograph of a poster which lives in my office at work. I can't remember where I got the poster but I can tell you it snags my attention on a daily basis. What is it that is so attractive about this poster? Yes, the dog is cool, for sure, and he (yes, he is a he) is irresistible. But it is the words that mesmerize me and wrap me around their sounds. I can't even really tell you what they mean. They simply evoke familiarity and yearning:
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." Cecil Beaton
In all honesty, I think I am a play-it-safer. I live a conventional life in a nondescript small town. There is nothing exceptional about me or my family. I want to be daring but I am not brave enough to be daring. I want to be different, but what's the point of that? Be different for the sake of different? I don't think so. Rarely am I impractical. I grew up knowing frugality and hard work. Doesn't blend so well with impracticality.
Why do the words capture me so much? What do you think?
What I think is that you are anything but a play-it-safer. You say what's on your mind, even if not everyone will agree with you. You are an advocate-of and for-the underdog, whether it is a middle school child, or a couple, desperate for the same love and security, that others are guaranteed. I laud you for your efforts; I love the way you put your message out there, and the visuals that enhance your site. If that's playing it safe, then it works for me.
ReplyDeleteYou will always say whatever you think I need to hear, sweet bro. My messages are generally either indecipherable (even I can't explain the talking fish), or self serving questions that can't be answered, or pathetic self aggrandizement via photos and words. What can I say? I love you! xoxoxoxo
DeleteLiving life in a way that is true to yourself - being your own unique self - is daring. I may be a minivan-driving, mother of two school kids, who does all the usual things ... which may make me look like a play it safer on paper. But I am (or at least I strive to be) my own authentic self all the while and that sets me apart.
ReplyDeleteAnd the $64,000 question, Sarah: How do you uncover the layers and find out who the authentic self really is (as compared to the self one plays?). Thanks for the encouragement.
DeleteWell, if you look at it purely from the perspective of the language it uses and the images it evokes, no one wants to be a slave to the ordinary. This poster seems to be saying how we appear to the world is what counts, since the dog is in an outfit and sunglasses being "daring." I say be daring in the ordinary. YOu know, talk about death with a stranger.
ReplyDeleteYou rock, Pamela! I can relate to talk about death with a stranger! I actually have managed to totally creep my sister out by casually mentioning that I have filled out the paperwork to donate my body to UCSF. She thinks that is uber weird -- what? let medical students see your naked body on a metal table? Sure? why the fk not? I don't care anymore. Freaked her out.
DeleteHey! I think you are extremely exceptional!! And I'm sure all the kids you help think so too! You don't have to be flamboyant to be all those things. My husband has a shirt that says "School Counselors Rock" - - and they do!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Judy. You are right - there are moments when I know I have made a difference - if even just for that moment - in one child's life. And making a difference in the lives of others is core to who I am - but that - to me, anyway - is a way of life and not exceptional. But I am also learning what it means to be salt of the earth. That's a good thing.
DeleteOrdinary does not describe you. No how, no way. You're the best kind of rebel, a subversive one. We can get more done that way. We have infiltrated. :)
ReplyDeletePerhaps what I want is to NOT be subversive. I want to LIVE OUT LOUD. :)
DeleteI stepped outside of my comfort zone a couple of times in my life. I surprised myself by doing things that I didn’t think I was capable of. Most people would probably consider the things I did as ordinary, but for me they were a big deal.
ReplyDeleteYour post reminds me of the poem “Warning by Jenny Joseph” which starts off:
“When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple”.
Getting to know you through your posts and your art, I see you in purple and wearing a big red hat. Perhaps not worn on the outside, but most certainly on the inside.
I know that poem! I need to read it again. I would agree with your insight - I DO wear big red hats on the inside. I am bold and brave and strong and real -- in my inner life. How to make that life mesh with the me that I play for the world?
DeleteI think you need a red dress moment to see yourself differently than you currently do. If you aren't familiar- here's a link http://thebloggess.com/2010/05/the-traveling-red-dress/
ReplyDeleteDo it!
I checked out the traveling red dress! Cool! I don't do too many crazy things - though I will often burst out in song when walking through the school office or out on the quads at lunchtime.....I am f-ing conventional. That's what I am. But I am dying to be something else. But you don't just change stuff like that. That's fake. I am seriously hard working and responsible and predictable and boring. That's it in a nutshell. Got no way around that. And you don't change stuff like that. That's not to say I don't have a great sense of humor , that I can't laugh with great vigor, that I don't like to have fun. I am so predictable and boring. That's it.
DeleteYour Red Dress moment can be whatever suits you- it definitely shouldn't be what someone else's idea of it is. To me, it's whatever lurks inside you that you've always wanted to do but haven't. Doesn't mean you have to be crazy, but push your own boundries a little and you'll be amazed at what will happen! Also, I don't know you personally, but based on reading your blog- you are anything but boring!
DeleteWhat you claim to be and what I see in your art (what draws me to it, in fact) are two very different things. Maybe that's how you get your daring and impractical out. Your art is free, and wild...and obviously the perfect outlet for your daring as it plays to that aspect of your personality without your realizing:)
ReplyDeleteI think it's inspiration. Sometimes I feel trapped by my current situation too, but I dream and set goals. They change constantly but it's what keeps me going day by day.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I think? That while you were raised in conventional circumstances, and brought up with the traditional values we both base our lives on, you maintain a secret dream to be free of the responsibility, the duties and the obligations that are part and parcel of the traditional values we live by. Sometimes we feel beaten down by the demands and expectations of those around us who know the way we are. People like you are the broad shouldered pack animals upon whom the rest of the world relies to do the work that should be done, like the work of an educator, a good parent, a dutiful child and sibling. We secretly harbor a place for the irresponsible artist, the selfish individual who dreams of being free from social obligations and expectations. That's why you look at the poster everyday--it takes you to that secret place and gives you hope.
ReplyDelete