Minutiae in miniature
I think the reason it might be fun to be Pope is that you wouldn't have to deal with the minutiae of life. Things like picking up the mail, filling up your car with gas, feeding pets, grocery shopping, dealing with people being weird, technical malfunctions, plumbing, electricity, all the systems that keep the world going every day.
The minutiae are multiplying around me. Another day, another 10 things that need my attention. Now. It's time to bring out the minutiae machete. The best way to get past the little beasts is to simply ignore their existence and watch the world continue on its merry way without giving a rats ass. That's my favorite way.
Until I do that, which isn't without cost, the most common for me being huge amounts of guilt and extraordinary concerns about 'dropping balls' I will feel like I'm hovering around something, prepared and ready and too preoccupied. However, the costs in getting caught up them are so much greater. Here's a few:
-Deciding that it really is more important to do your dishes than write down that line you thought of for your poem/story/script.
-Getting rid of something you love to make room for something you think you might need some day because it's practical. (I bought a piano from a woman whose husband wanted to by a pool table...the piano had been in her family for 5 generations, but she decided pool was more important...oh and they had a 4 car garage.)
-Not being present when people you love and are related to are trying to talk to you.
-Self absorption - easily one of the most terrible traits in humans.
-Not doing what you were born to do because you're concerned about all the things you're supposed to do.
Tonight I went to Screen Door, Barney, my sweet little short doc bout the toilet seat artist played, along with some other truly wonderful short films. My favorite was "Fake Stacy". It's about a girl who played two sisters in a sitcom, one, Sami, was perky and happy and the other, Stacy, was the "wise, doesn't really give a shit about perky, smart one". Sami was credited with the actress's name, Stacy was given a made-up name to hide the fact that she was played by the same actress. A Fake Stacy movement started and everyone became enamored with who played her and why the character wasn't "real". The actress has an existential crisis and somewhere in 15 minutes, a fine little film emerges.
Since, whether we admit it or not, we're all complex human creations, wearing one of a collection of personalities depending on the situation, we all have "Fake Stacy"s. Some we wear by choice, others people put on us according to our social role. It's a bit of a problem, isn't it? What if we could all just see each other a little more clearly, for even 5 minutes?
The minutiae are multiplying around me. Another day, another 10 things that need my attention. Now. It's time to bring out the minutiae machete. The best way to get past the little beasts is to simply ignore their existence and watch the world continue on its merry way without giving a rats ass. That's my favorite way.
Until I do that, which isn't without cost, the most common for me being huge amounts of guilt and extraordinary concerns about 'dropping balls' I will feel like I'm hovering around something, prepared and ready and too preoccupied. However, the costs in getting caught up them are so much greater. Here's a few:
-Deciding that it really is more important to do your dishes than write down that line you thought of for your poem/story/script.
-Getting rid of something you love to make room for something you think you might need some day because it's practical. (I bought a piano from a woman whose husband wanted to by a pool table...the piano had been in her family for 5 generations, but she decided pool was more important...oh and they had a 4 car garage.)
-Not being present when people you love and are related to are trying to talk to you.
-Self absorption - easily one of the most terrible traits in humans.
-Not doing what you were born to do because you're concerned about all the things you're supposed to do.
Tonight I went to Screen Door, Barney, my sweet little short doc bout the toilet seat artist played, along with some other truly wonderful short films. My favorite was "Fake Stacy". It's about a girl who played two sisters in a sitcom, one, Sami, was perky and happy and the other, Stacy, was the "wise, doesn't really give a shit about perky, smart one". Sami was credited with the actress's name, Stacy was given a made-up name to hide the fact that she was played by the same actress. A Fake Stacy movement started and everyone became enamored with who played her and why the character wasn't "real". The actress has an existential crisis and somewhere in 15 minutes, a fine little film emerges.
Since, whether we admit it or not, we're all complex human creations, wearing one of a collection of personalities depending on the situation, we all have "Fake Stacy"s. Some we wear by choice, others people put on us according to our social role. It's a bit of a problem, isn't it? What if we could all just see each other a little more clearly, for even 5 minutes?
Labels: life
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