13. How To Be A Person: The Best Way to Pass the Time Before Time Runs Out
The Newsletter for Friday March 22nd, 2024
As far as cuisine is concerned one must read everything, see everything, hear everything, try everything, observe everything, in order to retain in the end, just a little.” — Fernand Point, father of French Cuisine.
The future is not here yet. Why are we so enamoured with it? And the past? What is so bad about the present?
Do you remember that voice-over in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Read Line?
Who's doin' this? … Robbing us of life and light. Mockin' us with the sight of what we might've known. Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night?
What does it mean to take nothing for granted? In performance it means notice everything about your scene partner, about your environment. If you are really listening you’ll see and hear and feel everything. You won’t be worrying about the lines because to be truly present you can’t be worrying about what you’re going to say next. That is in the future. And it does not exist.
"One of the most important things distinguishing man from other animals is that man can take pleasure from drinking without being thirsty" - Fernand Pointe
Many of us suffer from the mental illness called nostalgia. We listen to the same Pink Floyd songs rather than exploring new music. We watch the same Shakespeare plays instead of trying on a new writer that might also have something to say. We would rather watch Love, Actually every Christmas or go see the Nutcracker rather than branching out and trying on Arnaud Desplechin’s Un Conte de Noël (Catherine Deneuve presides over familial seasonal dysfunction) or Mike Bartlett’s play Snowflake (A Brexiteer argues with his daughter and her friend).
But we miss out on so much when our heads are in the clouds of the past or our brows furrowed over a future that may never come. We suffer twice. We loose time. I have maybe thirty good summers left. Maybe. How many do you have? Will we look back and go Ahhh! The times I spent worrying over global heating was some of my most precious memories.
Here’s a photo of me biting my nails!
And look at this entry in my Courage Journal. I spent a whole weekend worrying about a thing I said at a party!
Thank God I posted that black square that time. It made such a difference. And now I can die at peace in the knowledge that I did my best.
People are a huuuuge pain in the ass. But being with people is still the most fulfilling way to pass the time before time runs out. Not that I don’t love being a solitary man … sometimes. Opportunity for growth, intimacy, connection are much harder when it’s just you and the cat.
Who happens to be an evil pear-shaped killer, the colour of an apricot.
In your scene work forget about the lines. Fuck the lines. Those are someone else’s hopes and dreams. The acting happens in the white swaths of paper those same damn lines are written upon. Be with your scene partner and see everything they are doing, hear everything they are saying and not saying. Try everything! And then cross your heart and hope to die that you may just retain a little.