Friday, April 27, 2012

Atlanta Driving: Horrid. Atlanta Drivers: Not too bad.

Driving a car is like getting to know a person.  At first you learn about their outer traits; how agile are they? What name do they like to go by? What type of gas mileage do they get?  But then more subtle traits begin to present themselves.  How do they respond under stress?  Do they attract attention?  Do they lie about how full they are?

Today during my travels I learned about one of these traits the Eagle (my car) possesses, and unfortunately it's the last one.  Specifically the speedometer told me I had a quarter of a tank left, when in fact all gas was absent.  This trait presented itself on one of the busier roads, during one of the busier times in Atlanta, but while this seems like quite a disastrous event, I found the experience to be pleasant.

I was about a quarter of a mile away from the nearest gas station - which I would later be thankful for -  when it began to putter, luckily there was enough putter to drag me to the side of the rode; however, knowing I was still in the way of traffic I put her in neutral and tried to push her further over.  Unfortunately due to the incline of the road this proved to be a fruitless endeavor and I returned to the drivers seat to call a friend or a tow truck. But before I dialed a single number there were two people behind my car telling me to put it back into neutral.  Our combined force easily maneuvered the car out of harm's way, and upon seeing this the two good samaritans returned to their own journeys.

From my new vantage point I reinserted the key and attempted to start the car only to be greeted with what is best described as the sound of a famished engine.  (Alright, that nearby gas station seems like a bit of a blessing now). With my goal in mind and armed with my faithful gas can, I pilgrimaged to and from the gas station 3 times, each time stopping to see if I could coax the engine into starting again.

As you can guess the denouement of this story involves my car starting, but as they say, "The destination doesn't matter, its the way you get there." During my trips to and from the gas station a total of seven people offered me rides!  Seven kind, understanding people.  I ended up declining them because it wasn't a very tedious walk, but seven bloody people offered to help me!  To add icing to the cake, on my final trip to my car a man standing at a bus stop, who had been observing my plight, told me that, "If your car has a fuel injected engine don't turn the key all the when your first starting it, just turn it a bit a couple of time."  I have no idea whether that statements was correct or not, but I was thankful for it nonetheless.

It's nice to know that during rush hour traffic 10 people were willing to rush to my aide, to interrupt their already filled schedules to help a man who's car has been lying to him.  But I think I might have lied to you as well.  The real denouement happened after my car was back on the road. As I drove away I looked over to the man at the bus stop who smiled and gave me a thumbs up, to which I could only respond with a loud thank you, and a thumbs up of my own.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

On Purpose

 
            Some people say the ultimate goal of humanity is to discover the reason behind our own existence.  Others say the closest we will ever get to an ultimate answer is the number 42.  Regardless of whether or not an answer exists, is this indeed our ultimate goal?  Do we all walk on the same path toward it?  Perhaps in some way we do, but looking at the human race as a whole, it doesn't seem like we follow a single line.  We are looking for something that puts us together – that without forcing, makes our puzzle piece fit into the world.  What each individual searches for is purpose.

             A person's purpose in life is an application of their abilities and emotions that both benefits the world and makes that person happy.  Purpose provides us with the means to answer the question, “Why am I here,”  instead of hiding it under our pillows where it can only manifest in dreams.  One misconception is that a person's purpose must be gargantuan.  Two people with entirely different purposes may feel the same sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, whether their purpose is the destruction of a planet annihilator, or the tending of a public garden.

People are not defined by their purpose; instead, people define their own purpose.  After we are born into this world, each person is presented with unique experiences and challenges.  Through these, a person learns about his strengths, weaknesses, delights, and aversions.  These preferences shape  one's purpose, and much like clay, this purpose can change.  However, sometimes it does not happen this way. Some people never have a chance to become self aware.  Others' lives may be riddled with fear.  Still others may do their best just to survive.  Whatever the circumstances, it does not mean that a person's purpose has disappeared; it has only become more difficult to reach. 

            While we all have a purpose, many people never find it.  The search for purpose is quite difficult.  Even if one's life is not fraught with hardships, the search for purpose places one in a state of uncertainty.  A pianist at heart may never play to a crowd; she may fear no one would appreciate her music.  What would her friends think?  Instead of taking a risk, she could opt for a cubicle job, living a safe,  monotonous life. 

            Humans have a natural dislike of risk; we desire to feel in control of our world.  To not have control sets us in a constant state of agitation, fearing possibilities that may never come.  It's this agitation that incites us to routinize our lives as a means of feeling in control.  This routinization forms another barrier – the inability to jump.  Not over a bar, or through a hoop, but at an opportunity.  Each day, we are presented with thousands of different scenarios; however, if our lives become too uniform, any other path, besides the one in front of us, seems overgrown with sagebrush.

            Those who do find their purpose cause an interesting phenomenon, be it the single mother whose purpose is to raise her child or an actor who finds his purpose in the audience's laughter.   Their work benefits not only themselves but also those around them.  Mankind may indeed be working toward a common goal – the betterment of the human race. 

           If you have found your purpose, by all means go forth and help others find theirs.  If we stop viewing the world as a zero sum game, perhaps we all can win.  If you haven't found your purpose yet, just remember a few things.  Jump!  Now is the time to search for your piece to the puzzle, and find where it fits.  Don't be afraid of this unpredictable world - embrace it.  How mundane of an existence this would be if our entire lives were scripted.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Mission Impov-able

Today I'm very distressed because my best friend, who happens to be a lion, has somehow been injured in a skiing contest.  Warn and scene.  The preceding scenario may seem ridiculous, but it is a regular day for a comedy improv actor.

Improv is a form of acting in which the actors come to the stage with no script and are responsible for setting the scene, creating characters, and interacting based only upon an audience suggestion given to them about 10 seconds before the scene.  This may seem hard, and it certainly is, but from my experience people make it out to be too difficult.  In reality, what you need to know to get started can be divided into two areas: one's own thought process, and interactions with others.

The human mind develops patterns from our experiences for how it is supposed to react to various situations.  These patterns are necessary because they simplify life, without them life would come to a standstill as everyone analyzed each of their decisions.   When a teapot whistles, a person doesn't consciously think about where the sound is coming from or what to do about it, instead one immediately fetches cups and prepares for a joyous time with friends.  The sound and the actions one takes are connected, as are thousands of other actions.  The trick to improv is finding connections between what you're doing and saying, and what you already know.  I know lions hunt gazelle; perhaps a gazelle was involved in causing my friends accident.  The more someone practices making these connections, the easier it becomes.

In fact one could probably master this aspect pretty quickly, it's the additional chaos caused by the other people on stage that complicates matters.  If it was just one person acting, she could control how the scene developed and progressed, but the same can't be said when there are two people on stage.  That's where the number one (and perhaps only) rule of improv comes in, the rule of "yes and".  I would compare this rule to the building of a bridge.  When one actor brings up a new scenario she is effectively sitting a board down on the bridge. Then when the next actor agrees with that idea he is affixing the board to bridge, and when he further builds on scenario he is setting yet another board on the bridge.  An actor saying no is tantamount to destroying the bridge (which is not very entertaining from an audience standpoint).  With the rule of "yes and" in mind, I quickly get to the hospital and my lion friend tells me yes he was injured in a race with the gazelle, and consequently lost his honor because of the defeat.  Now the only way for him to recover his honor is for me to defeat the gazelle.  The "yes and" rule does two things, it allows a scene to develop and it develops trust between the actors.

This trust is key.  When a person is on stage he is displaying his soul, how can he effectively do this if he is constantly worrying about being ridiculed?  It's when everyone in an improv troupe trusts and accepts each other that ideas start to flow, things start to become interesting, and most importantly scenes come to an exciting and hilarious end.  Perhaps this ending involves me challenging the gazelle, only to learn that he didn't even know the first race happened, he just thought the lion was hunting him on skis!  End scene.
 
Now you may be wondering to yourself, why am I writing about improv on a blog about business?  Well this is something that can help your business endeavors.  The ability to think on your feet is invaluable, the ability to make connections is even more important.  One of the reasons I got into improv in the first place was to work on this skill. Get a few friends together and try it out, I promise you won't be sorry.