What Are You Waiting For?

I want to offer some thoughts I had about how some people seem to live their life in a holding pattern, and how I see my role as an artist as being a helper, a guide. I appreciate you!

(scene: I’m being asked a question during the interview portion of the pageant similar to the photo above, but not quite.)

Steve Harvey: If you could change one thing about everybody in the world, what would it be?

Me: If I could change one thing about everybody in the world, I would ask that passivity be removed from their lives.

Steve: Beautiful answer. Tell us why...

Me: I think that passivity holds so many people back from really experiencing the life they want to have and all the good that they can do. People wait around for life to be handed to them, and when it isn’t, they just end up sitting on the couch watching television.

Steve: So how do you suggest people have the life they desire?

Me: The best way to have the life you desire is to create it. With hope, love, and grace as your watchwords, you can do most anything you want.

(audience applauds)

There are some people who seem to be living life in a holding pattern…just waiting for someone to give them permission to start really living.

I know, because I did that for many, many years. I listened to voices that I shouldn’t have, perhaps because they sounded so…um, reasonable.

Reasonable people who didn’t want me to get hurt, or to suffer the unbearable heaviness of rejection. Reasonable people who wanted to point me toward the easy path—the one that wouldn’t require me to believe that the impossible might actually be possible. Instead of pushing me toward hard work and increased faith, it’s easier to discourage and dismiss. Where’s the hope in that?