Ten Things You Should Know from William Stout

music: Anything that personally inspires you
mood: Philosophical (and hopefully not too pretentious)

TEN THINGS
I promised this list to you yesterday; sorry I'm a day late --- but I think you might find it worth the wait....

This was a short observation I related at my 50th birthday party a few years ago:

When a friend of mine recently turned 60 he was given three bits of advice:
1) Never trust a fart,
2) Never pass up a chance to pee, and
3) Never waste an erection.

I’m still a decade away from that benchmark in time. But, I think people still kind of expect some sort of perspective from the lofty hill of half a century. So, in the past 50 years, here are a few gleaming nuggets of knowledge that I’ve managed to uncover and retrieve from the muck of what we call Life:

1. The hardest, most soul-sucking jobs I ever did were the few that I’ve done just for the money.

2. Never envy anyone. You don’t really know what awful things may have happened in their life, or the kind of painful sacrifices that have been made to attain that which you covet. A few years ago John F. Kennedy, Jr. was the envy of the world; I can't think of anyone who would trade places with him now. Judge your own success by what you had to give up in order to get it. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

3. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before. Take that trip; have that adventure. You’ll never remember the money spent on the mundane and so-called necessary things of life. But a deep experience, a step into a different part of the real world is something that you will never forget as long as you live. See fewer movies; stop living vicariously through other people’s adventures and have some of your own. Or take the two or three hours you would have spent alone in the dark and use it instead to create something that touches or moves people or makes them laugh.

4. Effort spent to make the world a better place may rarely pay but it is never time wasted. It is also absolutely necessary for the nurturing of your soul and karma and for the future of your children and your friends’ children. If you live a good, honorable life when you get older when you think back you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

5. Pass on what you know to the young and you will learn more than you teach. It's also a way to achieve immortality.

6. If you’ve lost your passion and enthusiasm for what you’re doing, you probably should be doing something else.

7. Welcome criticism. If the person criticizing your work doesn’t know what they’re talking about, well, then, who cares what they say? It’s water off a duck’s back. But if they do know what they’re saying and are making a valid critical comment regarding your work, then thank them --- they’ve just given you a gift. They’ve presented you with the information you need to make your work better --- and how rare, wonderful and valuable is that?

8. The best people to be around are the ones who make you laugh. Laughter removes stress, eases pain, allows you to deal with the most difficult of situations and makes you look forward to life.

9. Spend some time alone every day; you really should be your own best friend. But conversely, don’t forget that, as the saying goes, it really is who you know. When I consider the wonderful friends and colleagues I’ve accumulated over the years, I treasure how dear and special each of these people are. They are not just a group with shared interests and high creative standards, but a group united in pride and love for what they do and for each other.

10. At age forty my wife left a fairly successful (she made a decent living at it) acting career spanning more than twenty five years to go back to school, so that she could study and practice medicine. Many of you who know me closely know that I had originally planned to be a doctor, that I have many friends who are doctors and have an enormous respect for the medical profession. Since my wife began her practice, I’ve often denigrated what I do in comparison to what she does. The old grim joke is that if I make a mistake I can cover it with paint; if she makes a mistake, it gets covered with dirt. I’ve thought a lot about that recently and after careful reconsideration I now think that self-denigration was wrong. There is a special but deep and vast importance to what we people in the arts do. The truth is this: The medical profession saves lives; we artists, writers and musicians --- we save souls.

Happy New Year!


Bill on 01/02/06 @ 05:38 PM PST
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