• you have no sequel

~ Pirates of the Copy Store

“On a shattered and deserted stage,
    without script or prompter,
          the actor is free to improvise his part.”
                                                              - John Paul Satre

Summer. The season of light reading, movie blockbusters, and wallet busters. Many of this year’s cinema stories feature characters we’ve met before. The mild-mannered, caped crusader is back (in red, white and blue), defying gravity, time, and his heart. Arnold said, “I’ll be back.” and he is back with Terminator 3--and will probably become a run for re-election for Govenator of California. He doesn’t want to be Terminatored.
    We’ve already had follow up flicks to determine whom was fastest and most furious, but we’ll have to wait another year or more for our return trip to Narnia; and Potter’s playground.
    Instead we get the biggest opening weekend for any film ever as Captain Depp has sailed back into our local cine-harbors pursued by no less than Davy Jones himself. Seems like ol’ Dave has something to get off his chest. But this one is a mega-length, middle episode of a three part story. As a result it isn’t a full story so much as one more, Hollywood mid-trilogy mischief. I’ll bet my doubloons Disney does more than three trips to the Caribbean. Is Hollywood so bereft of new ideas that they must foist recycled mega-hits on us in the belief that even a mediocre story--with sufficient splashing--will create the desired cha-ching at the box office? ($120 opening weekend.) When they’re not repeating, they are remaking films, many of who's originals cannot be topped. Did the world need a new Inspector Clouseau? I Steve Martin funny--not always--but he is NOT Peter Sellers. No one is Peter Sellers. Twenty years hence will our children’s children be subjected to remakes of  The Jerk and Three Amigos!
    What’s will come out of the remake mill next Adam Sandler in Dr. Zhivago? George Clooney and Julia Roberts down on the plantation at Tara? Or...save us all, Citizen Cruise--hide the children! (Maybe Thomas the Cute will stay busy on impossible missions and marrying the young. Or he could become a pharmacist. Hand me the dagger now.)
    Whilst Hollywood is in remake mode, the scientific community, meanwhile, is poised to shift from sheep to shepherds in their mad dash to clone all of life. If human cloning was fool proof--and the smartest of the smart say it shall never be--it will lead to new dangers in life.
    My former boss and friend, Wes Harty, was the father (by the traditional method) of five children. When asked he'd say, proudly and only a bit tongue-in-cheek, “I have five children, one of each.” And he did. Though my brother, Todd, and I splashed in the same gene pool (I belly flopped) we could not be more different. In my more mischievous moments as a kid, my dad confessed to seeing too much of himself and his two goofy-off-the-chart brothers in me.
     “I felt like spanking you.” He said a time or two, “But you really weren’t doing anything wrong, just being you.”
    I was discovering me, by trial and error. As long as we did not break any valuable household items or injury another living creature, my brother and I were given a wide berth to explore living.
    Too late in life many people go back to the uncompleted explorations of our childhood--finding current (adult) life uninteresting, unsatisfying. We wonder why grown up living can't be playful and a bit mischievous. Movie stars and pro athletes behave childishly--all the time--and we are regaled by their hijinx and low standards.
    There must be a way to keep your day job and add a play job in between. “In-between what?!” You ask. “My schedule is maxed out. My week-at-a-glance has eight days and they’re all full.”
    What do you love?
    What turns you on, excites you, makes you giddy? Or what used to get your engine of delight racing? When you were six or ten or fourteen what did you always find time for--in-between homework, chores, little league, scouting, church youth group. Do you miss anything from those days?
    Could you find five minutes this week to do “it” again? How about saving an hour next week (write it into the book like an important meeting) for a long-left-behind hobby or.....you know what it is.

TRY THIS. (Finish this sentence:)

I’ve  always wanted to _________________ ,
    (fill in project, passion, or dream)
but I never did because ________________ .
    (What have you allow to stop you from doing or pursuing this?)

    Don’t write a story just a statement of some unfinished favorite project; an unfulfilled dream; a place you want to see or visit again (only this time you’re going to stay awhile--a week, a month, more.)
    You are searching for your passion. It is like a hunt for burried treasure--buried beneath years of denial and neglect. But you can find it, dig it up, and revive that treasure--your life's passion. It is, I believe, the key to the reason you arrived here in the first place. But it is YOUR passion. There is only one of you and you are the only one who can do you. As I have been telling my workshop participants for years, “If you don't do you, you doesn't get done and Creation is incomplete.”
    There will be no sequel to you, no equal to you. You are not picking up where your pop left off or correcting your mom’s mistakes.
    Parents: Your unfulfilled dreams are NOT your child's “to do” list. Ever.
    Nor is any one of us a better version of an earlier attempt that our Creator botched. Everyone of us is an original idea--ask the parents of twins or triplets.
    Life ain't a contest, but it is a test and the big question is “How great can you stand it?” Just when you think it can't get any better (or worse) it often does. You have more control over your life than anyone. Chart a course and set sail into new and uncharted waters--your life. There's room onboard--in you--to hold all the answers ansd all the dreams the Creator has for you.
    Today (you may be having your Tea with McNair early in the AM) grab an armful of “in-between time” and skip outside the lines of “must” and “have to” and “should” to that place just down the street called “love to.” When you get there, you will be surprised to find a seat with your name on it. It may be a bit dusty from lack of use, not any more.
    I'll see you there. (I'll be the loud kid in the purple shirt, with all the colored felt pens. Help yourself.)

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Comments

[Suzanne]

In the midst of my "to do's", "shoulds" and "have to's", I felt compelled to visit your blog. I guess I just needed a dose of you McNair! Wanting to recapture the feeling of being able to defy gravity once more from the privledge of attending your workshops at the CWG writer's conference in February. Your words today felt very personal...it was just what I needed! Ever since the workshop I have been trying to "risk assumption" and have discovered the treasures life has hidden there. Realizing today that I haven't been "risking assumptions" about my being and purpose...grieving the jewels that could have sparkled had I begun. However:
I will begin where I am; as you said, "Yesterday is the only place you can't get to from here." I'm ready for "me" to "get done", after all I would not want to contribute to an "incomplete Creation". Thank you again for the heartbeats you speak into the world!
Forever grateful,
suzanne

[sandra]

Hey "loud kid"...love the shirt...mine's still a little plain...white to be exact...(easier to bleach out when it gets stained...there's a deep thought)...no splash of color...no cool design, just ordinary...practical...

Since meeting you in North Carolina, I've really reflected alot on the things you said...shouted, actually ...right in my ear. Wondering where I fit in to me....so I can figure out how to "do me." Believing there is a creative spirit inside.... wondering how it got so rusty ....so afraid (petrified,to be exact).

I've dropped in, occassionly, to visit with you. Hoping desperately that somehow a creativity flu has broken out, and that the bug has found its way into cyber-space, infecting everyone it comes in contact with. (still hoping...)

I've even practiced a few rigt-brain exercises, humiliating myself in private. (how hard is that?) Wondering if the flat lines on the right side will ever be revived....(beeeeeep!)

Still...believing that I'm not terminal, crying out to my creator, "Holy Father, make me like Bezalel...fill me with Your creative Spirit, that I may co-create with You...for You!"

Now, today...stopping by to visit with you, when I really SHOULD be doing something else (laundry, anyone?)...longing to do the other...still wondering exactly what "the other" is. Not really sure how to fill in the blanks...or maybe just too scared. Certain only, that there is One who knows me, Who can teach me how to do me. Encouraged now, by you, not to lose heart, to continue seeking that Truth. Feeling a little more courageous to just do SOMETHING...rather than nothing. For that, I'm grateful...

Thank you for your "heartbeats" (as Suzanne so sweetly suggested)...your heartbeats are thumping colorful life into this ordinary world...MY ordinary world. In fact, I'm feelin' a little inspired to splash a little color on this white shirt...tie-dye might be nice...and maybe a little music to dance by... :)
Thanks friend....sandra

[Ed]

..... “If you don't do you, you doesn't get done and Creation is incomplete.” .....

Wow! I heard you way it at DCW - it's good to read it again.

I agree with the other Commentators (Common taters - regular potatoes??) - this is an excellent blog and one that hits home.

I'm off to find my purple crayon ...

Thanks ....