Staying Awake in Seattle, Day 5: Beware the luggage you didn’t know you packed
You settle in more quickly than you know.
The apartment that seemed so strange becomes home (so much so, you relax into full-on slob mode). Within days, you have your grocery store, your coffee place—your routine.
You came up here with intention to try things differently (to get away, to try living elsewhere, to do some writing you’d been unable or unwilling to do at home) and before you know it, you’ve slipped into all kinds of same-old behavior. Is your life really so different, or did you just haul the same shit—or a subset of it—1,100 miles north?
There are many great things about Method training for the actor. One of the greatest is learning one’s patterns. Patterns are what keep us from being present; patterns are also a great part of what defines us as characters. Examine the patterns, hold them up to the excruciating light of truth, and maybe—maaaaaybe—you can start to break them.
And once you break them, you can start to illuminate them, so that maybe—maaaaaaybe—people around you can start to see theirs. The interested parties, of course.
You look at what you’re doing. You look at it under a bright, bright light.
You tell everyone else what you see.
You wake up and try again.
xxx
c
4 Comments, Comment or Ping
deb
Oh…..yeah……
As someone who has moved 17 times in her life, I know that feeling VERY well.
You move.
But unfortunately (or fortunately, if you recognize it)…..you do take YOU with you. (And all your stuff. ha)
Have fun with that!
It’s really an opportunity to do things as differently as you want to. And that can be a really cool thing.
All the best!
deb
Oct 2nd, 2008
Andrew
People develop patterns as naturally as a tree develops roots. Patterns, at their best, help to keep us organized and provide stability and a framework to work in.
On the flip side is complacency and the forgotten areas that develop within those patterns. Patterns, and most other things in life, are meant to be examined every so often just as the tree must be pruned.
Just don’t fault yourself for bringing yourself with you - seeing yourself in the context of a new environment is what makes the examination possible.
Oct 2nd, 2008
Skegger
I see you’ve been enjoying the coffee in Seattle… enjoy the dreary, it makes the sun seem worthwhile. Trust me, I was raised in ‘75 and sunshine… it always gets old.
Ok, just for the gig itself, wander up to Mae’s on Phinney Ridge… about 76th and Greenwood I think. Try the Green Eggs and ham. Nothing pushes the ‘personal luggage’ around like a meal you’ve heard of since childhood, but never really eaten. Upon my 10th move to resettle, I came across Mae’s in Seattle, it’s just breakfast, but take in the freakshow of a thousand cows, a giddy staff and Seattle’s pre-Microsoft days come back to life. Yes, there was a time like that.
So where do I send the next set of MANVIL cards, this time it’s power tools?
Best of luck to you in Portland’s older, more ‘complex” brother.
Oct 2nd, 2008
the communicatrix
Deb - Wherever you go, there you are. I’ve used it twice now, but never as a post title. I think that may need to happen soon.
Andrew - I try to remember the not-beating-myself-up thing. Put the puppy on the mat. Sometimes it works, sometimes…not so much. But I keep doing it.
Skegger - Oh, I was never happier than the day I woke up here and the sun did NOT shine. Perverse for people who live up here, I guess, but it’s relentless in SoCal.
I’m still based out of L.A. Same place. No plans to move…yet.
Oct 3rd, 2008