The Direction of Intention

171.
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A few years ago Charlie was listening to the radio during his commute home. He heard a news report that the Supreme Court had just removed financial and reporting restrictions on political advertising.
When he got home he went straight to his television, unplugged the converter box (he had an old analog set and needed the box to read a digital signal), and took the box to the garage. In the garage, he took his hammer from the wall and smashed the converter box into bits.

He laughs when he tells this story (and his wife laughs, too – now). Charlie is a father. He said that day in the car he realized what kind of bile was about to pour into his house through the television and that if the Supreme Court was no longer interested in protecting him and his family from vicious untruth that he must do it. He said, “It was an election year. Do you know what kind of trash that ruling unleashed? I didn’t want that to be part of my home.” He told me that it was his responsibility to select what he let into his and his family’s consciousness.

Imagine what might happen if we took responsibility for what we let into our consciousness! What if, like Charlie, we took responsibility for keeping our space (inner and outer space) clean of propaganda, violent accusation, and baseless judgment? Who might we become if we smashed the converter box (literal and metaphoric) and refused to give misinformation any space in our lives?

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167.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I met with Natalie to help her with ideas about a non-profit organization, artful international, that she formed with her husband. Both Natalie and her husband, Chris, dreamed of different careers; he studied to be a filmmaker, she studied to be a teacher. Both now work in financial services.

Because they wanted their lives to be dedicated to something other than making money they formed artful international to work with artists, inspire art, and raises money for causes in which they believe. They are currently raising money to send artists to Africa to work with children displaced by war or AIDS (another kind of war). The artists work with the kids to help them express in paint, music, dance,…, what they cannot say or that they want to say but have no one to listen.

Natalie is the little engine that could; many people dream of doing something heart-full, she and Chris simply acted on their impulse. No limits. Artful International is relatively new in this world and already is has fans across the west coast and will soon be connecting artists to transformational work all across the globe.

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165.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

[continued from 164]

There’s more to be said about the experience of being “in” the play or “out” of the play, being “in” life or “out” of life. It is more than just where you place your focus. Something happens, something distinct, important and tangible when your focus shifts from an internal to an external placement. A space of inclusion is created.

I understood early on that actors who were pretending, actors who were concerned about how they looked or were trying to determine what the audience saw, were actually blocking the audience from entering the story. If an actor’s focus was internal, they literally shut the audience out of the play; the audience could view but were blocked from participating. Transformation is a participation sport.

Like all forms of art, the theatre, in its essence, is about a coming-together, a group of people stepping into a shared experience. This space of coming together, this space of inclusion, is a step toward unity – this is a great definition for a sacred space; sacred space is a place of joining, a place where we transcend our little selves and we experience ourselves as something bigger. Sacred space is created – by us – when we place our focus outside of our selves. This joining is what art is all about. It is what life is all about.

I suspect that art, to truly serve its function, was never intended to be separate from day to day living. We are, after all, actors in our own play. And to be useful, to be transformational, living (presence) begins with learning to place your focus outside of yourself – in service to the creation of a space of joining.

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164.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Jim Edmondson is one of America’s great theatre directors and for a few years at the beginning of my career I was fortunate to assist him several times and was able to call him friend. He told me once that the best actors are only “in” the play about 40% of the time. I was amazed because I thought the best of the best were capable of a higher percentage. I learned that what he told me was true; it is herculean to be present in a performance 40% of the time!

So much of what he taught me has carried over into this broader study of life. Think about it: how present are you “in” your life? Do you ever hit 40%? Will you ever be present 40% of your allotted time on this earth? It’s a tough one to crack because trying to be present guarantees that you are “out” of your play (because you are watching yourself). It is herculean to allow yourself to be “in” life, even if you know what your play is.

I like the terms “in” or “out” of the play, meaning to be present or not. It is a trick of language when “in” the play means your focus is out side of your self. You are “in” your life when your focus is on something other than your self, forget about your self and flow is yours! “Out” of the play means you are concerned about how you look or how others perceive you. It’s hard to be in the flow when your awareness is dancing with the inner critics.
Jim taught me a trick for when I would fall out of the play (life). Place your focus to something small, your thumbnail or a flower or a scent on the air – and once you have it, once your attention is “out there,” open it to include the people in the play with you. In the end, the play is not about you or me, it is about the space between us; flow is about the relationship we create together.

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