Follow Your Bliss

I was waiting for a subway train when I heard a happy voice call out my name. I turned to see Susan, a committed and enthusiastic member of Cantores Celestes, the choir I used to sing with. (See July 6th entry.) We caught up briefly on each others' news, and by the time the train arrived we were deeply engaged in more serious conversation. We entered the car together, still talking.
I told my former fellow chorister about my reasons for leaving the choir. It was a hard decision for me to make, but I needed to devote more time to developing my career as a writer and actor. And then Susan told me about her younger sister, who had had a successful career as a doctor when she decided to give it up and follow her life-long dream of being an actress. Now she's putting herself out there and busy writing and performing for fringe festivals and local theatres.
I've known a number of actors, unable to cope with the rigours and insecurities of living life on the edge - working now and then, hustling, auditioning, and doing odd jobs between gigs - who have given it all up and gone back to school to study law, and yes, even medicine. But I've never met someone who did it the other way around - going from a well-paid profession to the vagaries and uncertainties of a life as an actor, or an artist in any discipline, for that matter. Sure, there are established professionals who are happy to pursue their artistic interests as hobbies, but giving up a good living for a life in the arts? Wow! Now that's following your bliss.
I couldn't help admiring this woman's courage and commitment. I found it truly inspiring, and it emboldened me to persevere. Okay, sure, Susan's sister has a great job to fall back on, and does so between gigs, whereas most actors' "straight" jobs offer them only minimum wage, myself included. But Susan's sister is a committed artist who has obviously worked and studied hard to get where she is. She's truly earned all the breaks she can get. (Susan is also an accomplished woman - she has a law degree and teaches law at university. Her creative outlet is singing in the choir.)
Fulfilling our potential and achieving our goals can take our entire lives. Hearing Susan's story about her sister made me wonder how many people live what Thoreau refers to as a life of quiet desperation - a life of longing and yearning. Many people don't even know what it is they really want - what fires them up and gets them going. The people who know what they want out of life are truly blessed, and those who actually get out there and pursue it deserve as much luck as fate can dispense.
I'm glad I bumped into Susan and got a chance to hear her sister's story. It gives me hope. So I'd like to say to her, and indeed, to anyone who is brave enough to walk the often bumpy, difficult path to living your dreams - break a leg!
- G.P.

Good Vibes

I sang in a women's choir for 14 years. My time with the choir was filled with music (of course!), camaraderie, study, practise, joy and angst. Each season culminated in a concert for an audience of 600 people. Standing on stage, shoulder to shoulder with almost 50 women, our voices all raised in song, I could feel a powerful connection with the audience and each other, even though our eyes were on the director.
The connection between the performers and the audience is palpable. When everything is just right - notes, pitch, volume, expression, focus and intention, the audience is engaged on a deeper level than just listening. A performing artist in any discipline can tell if that connection has been made long before the audience responds with applause. In order to achieve that ideal performance level, ensemble performers must first connect with each other. For musicians, it is on a physically quantifiable, vibrational level. When I sang with my fellow choristers, the perfect blend our director always sought would be achieved when we vibrated in perfect harmony, even if we were singing in unison.
Harmony is defined as a state of perfect balance and proportion. It is a term applied to music, mathematics and mood. When something is harmonious, it is either beautiful or peaceful, or both. (I make the distinction because music like Beethoven's Ode to Joy is certainly beautiful, although not necessarily "peaceful" in the strictest sense of the word.) When the heavenly bodies of the sun, moon, planets and stars were erroneously thought to orbit the earth in perfect concentric circles, the movement of these celestial bodies was believed to create the "music of the spheres." As fate would have it, the choir I sang with is called Cantores Celestes, which is Latin for "celestial singers." How perfect. In order to create music that sends one's spirits soaring, there must be complete accord amongst the singers themselves, at least musically. I met many beautiful, gifted and special women during my time with Cantores Celestes. A number of them have become dear friends I will cherish all my life. In different circumstances - in an office, for example - I doubt very much I would have made the same intense connection with some of these women, because we are so unlike each other. It was music that brought us together. Despite differences in outlook and beliefs, when we sang together, i.e. vibrated together, we were connecting on a quantum level. Now that's really deep, both physically and metaphysically.
Everyone and everything in the universe vibrates. The human body is a living, breathing, vibrating instrument. When we choose to raise our voices in song rather than anger, we become instruments of peace. That is why music is known as the international language. Sir John Tavener, choral composer and English mystic, says that "if the world is to be saved, it will be saved by beauty." Amen to that.
- G.P.