"Using What's in the Room"

Pile of crap in a corner












Tonight, I went to see a play to fulfill an assignment for my acting class. Life is tough.

The play, Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman, presented the myths of Ovid as romantic and lyrical, while managing to retain the raw and brutal nature of the gods. Okay, so maybe that won't be in my paper. The play was well written, well presented, and well acted; however, the thing that struck the loudest chord within me was in the program notes. The playwright mentioned a line from Willa Cather's Song of the Lark, where a character remarks that "she will never be the artist she was as a child." Zimmerman translated that into her own: "I am at my best when I am unselfconscious and using what's in the room."

Interesting. How often do we tell ourselves - and others - that things will be PERFECT, if only [fill in the blank]? How often have we delayed our plans until X happens or arrives? How often have we deferred something until the time is right? Until the package arrives? Until the planets align? How often have we forgotten what we are even waiting for for all the waiting we do?

Perhaps - just as an exercise, mind you - we should try "using what's in the room." Look around . What do you see right there in front of you? What is there in your room that you can use? What can you do with it? What will you do with it? Don't think so much! Don't think about time slipping by; think of yourself slipping by while you wait for the right time, tools, mindset, people, opportunity. Maybe what you are looking for is right there in front of you, on the shelf waiting for you to pick it up. Literally.

C'mon. Don't you have something to do?