Lots To Think About
A lot going on all of a sudden:
Greg’s ACL surgery is tomorrow.
Brian got a full time unpaid internship which begins Monday, the same day as his training to be an ACT tutor begins — so he goes from having empty days to having too much to do.
Whitney and John signed a lease for next year; John may finally have a lead on a job.
Leigh Anna and I have found a venue to do Join the Club, and can now plan a next run beginning next January.
Even though my new script has a long way to go, looking like collaboration with composer may happen and that we may have song from new show to submit to ASCAP cabaret.
I might need to take a sleeping pill.
Talent vs Experience
When people with no particular talent for something are nevertheless able to do that thing over and over again, they eventually have lots of experience doing it. I have noticed that when that occurs, those people tend to confuse the two: they come to believe that they have talent, rather than what they actually have — a long history of doing something poorly over and over again.
Vintage brooches depicting first, a full nest, and then an empty nest.
Which mother bird is having more fun? Tough call, huh? (Wouldn’t be as tough a call if she had a teenage bird in her nest.)
An Explanation
Why is this blog called “Semonate?”
Because, when I began, I was on my high horse, looking for a perch from which to pontificate. Unfortunately, I couldn’t call this blog “pontificate,” because someone already had the name. I asked myself what was like pontificating, and it seemed to me that sermonizing was like pontificating, so, instead of “Pontificate,” I called this “Sermonate.”
Not great, I realize in retrospect, but available.
Fashion and general commentary, tastefully done.
“It’s called a job. It not about what you want to do; it’s about what someone else wants you to do. That’s why they pay you to do it. There’s a way to pursue your passion: it’s called a hobby.”
Paraphrasing my friend Pat, while discussing the disservice we’ve done to our children by telling them to find and follow their passions.
“Letting Go” - Deleted “Empty Nest” rant
MEG
On the way over, I ran into this woman I barely know, and she asked me whether Carl and I are moving now that Matt’s gone. Everyone I run into asks me that. It’s friggin’ annoying.
LISA
Oh, they’re just making conversation. They don’t mean anything by it.
MEG
You’re probably right, but actually, having the kids gone changes the way people look at you. And it pisses me off. It pisses me off when I experience a change in status because of something that has nothing to do with me.
DINA
Come again?
MEG
Like when I got married, and I suddenly became Mrs. Carl Carroll. I was the same person, but people treated me differently.
DINA
Well, getting married kinda did have something to do with you.
MEG
But I was the same. For God sakes, we’d been living together for a year- even that was the same. But I suddenly started to get invited to things I hadn’t been invited to before, and it pissed me off. And this is the same kind of thing. I’m no different than I was a week ago, before Matt left, but I’ve been initiated into this new group. Old people. Pathetic people. People who are just trying to fill up the days until they die.
LISA
Oh my gosh. Don’t you think you may be over reacting just a tad?
MEG
No. These labels change the way people see you. Ten years ago, if someone was introduced to me as an “empty nester”, I wrote them off immediately: Too ancient to be interesting. Besides, it’s a stupid expression.
“Letting Go” — Resting place for deleted text
I’m working on a musical which, at least at the moment, is called “Letting Go.” It’s about the time of life when people become “empty nesters.” I chose this topic because I wanted to respond to the various issues and situations that arise at this time of life. The first draft of my show includes characters giving voice to many of my personal views. For better or for worse, I see that many of these passages, while interesting to me, do absolutely nothing to forward my show and need to be deleted.
Because it’s killing me to simply delete these passages into oblivion, I decided to set up a blog where they can continue to exist.
I clearly have problems Letting Go.
