Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Lately, my Chicks and I have been jokingly whining to each other “Stop making me do scary things!”  You see, every time we try something new, we are afraid. Afraid of failure, afraid of other people’s judgment, afraid of many things.

But we keep trying new things anyway.  One of us will come up with some crazy idea and the others will say “Yeah!” even though inside they might be thinking “What?? I can’t do that!”

Why do we do this?  Because we want to encourage each other, because we don’t want to let each other down, because we feel more capable when we are together.  Because we’ve committed ourselves to a more creative life.  And, isn’t doing something new the very essence of creativity?

I heard an interview yesterday that made me realize that people who do creative work are afraid at least some of the time and perhaps on a daily basis. Terry Gross, of Fresh Air on National Public Radio, was interviewing Pamela Adlon, an actress on the current HBO hit series Californication and a voice over artist who won an Emmy for voicing Bobby on King of the Hill.   Pamela was talking about how just putting on some of the wardrobe (such as it is) for the HBO show was scary.  I thought: here’s someone who does this for a living and has for many years and has won awards.  She still gets scared, why shouldn’t I?

I was afraid to sing our theme song to be recorded – I mean, I was literally shaking.  I was afraid to act (I know that’s stretching the definition) in our video.  I was really afraid to launch them for the whole world to see and hear.  Now I realize I can’t just accept fear, I have to embrace it.  So, though I won’t call it a resolution, my creative goal for this year is to be afraid as often as possible.

And my wish for you in 2012 is to be afraid, be very afraid.