[I keep getting nasty trackback links posted to my entires that relate most closely to my creative ambitions. Someone out there wants to pollute that. No more luck for them. TRACKBACKS OFF.]

In recent years, various situations have impelled me to seriously reconsider a previously buried dream of being an actor, then revive and pursue it. I wrote scraps here and there about these experiences and owe it to myself (and probably the curiosity of others) to gather them into one. I’ll do that, revising this entry from time to time.

Meanwhile, I’ll recall one of the prompts: a sentence in a new-agy titled book:

“Make no decisions based on security. There is none.”

Strictly, I disagree with this sentence. I believe there are things about which we can be absolutely certain. The context in which this sentence was given may admit that (I don’t recall). But the point is that there is risk of failure and insecurity in everything. If we run risks everyday in a pursuit or occupation we don’t like, why not take (carefully planned) risks for an occupation we really want, instead?

A counter-argument is that risk is greater for artists. Barring situations with factors that truly cut off success for artists, I say that this is not so: only for failures on the part of the artist in self-marketing, self-development, business savvy, etc. Pointing back to the everything is a risk argument, these skills are necessary to every professional pursuit.

This philosophy is dangerous to folks of black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking (yours truly). No one should burn their life to the ground and hope that all their buried dreams will resurface in a new life instantly reborn. More on this later.