In light of the tragedy that occurred in Orlando over the weekend, I thought it would be best to remember the lives lost by celebrating our lives that we still get to live.
And as great as it is being an actor ”“ the best story you’re ever going to tell is your own life story.
Your story.
To become mindful of the stories we wish to weave of our precious lives is purposeful. It’s powerful. It’s impactful. It’s the reason we’re here.
If you then, are the storyteller, how could you ever get it wrong? You’re not only telling other people’s stories through the various prisms of who you are, it’s the way you uniquely do it. No one else can do it your way. That in of itself is significant.
What if we started approaching our lives and our auditioning and our acting in terms less as “acting” and end-results but rather more in telling the stories we wish to tell, and how we want to tell them.
Why are we obsessed with telling other people’s stories? Partly I think this is because we think our stories are meaningless and people won’t be interested in them. That they’re boring or f**ked up or too disturbing or that other people won’t relate.
If it’s personal, which it is, and it’s universal ”“ which all stories are ”“ people will relate.
The truth is your story is connected to my story is connected to her story is interlaced with all the stories we’ve ever been told since storytelling began. Our stories are shaped by the stories we believe. They’re stories we don’t want to believe. They are stories other people tell. They’re interwoven with all the heartache and love and passion and joy that’s come from so many before us. They’re also stories other people tell about us ”“ which we give far too much attention to and lose our own narrative.
In his amazing documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Warner Herzog examines the Chauvet Caves in Southern France which contain the oldest (recorded) human- painted images ever discovered some 32,000 years ago. It seems there was some major art (!) going on in the Upper Paleolithic era.
Human beings were doing then what we are all doing now. They were telling stories of survival and nature and love and being part of a tribe called humanity.
People were telling stories long before they were describing themselves as “actors” or “artists” or “poets.” They were just expressing. Without a label. It’s just what people did. It’s how culture began. And I would go so far as to say it’s what keeps the human narrative alive.
In the face of tragedy, in the face of opposition or bigotry or prejudice, all the more important to understand that your story matters. That to silence your own story would not only be a personal travesty, but it would also be something the world would never hear.
So remember that. And celebrate your story. Especially to honor those people who no longer can.