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One person always passing along inspiration is poet Andrea Gibson. Dealing with sucky cancer, she manages to be human AND inspiring. Her latest post includes this line: "What is in the way is the way." andreagibson.substack.c… The obstacles are definitely in the way! And yet maybe they can be used, too. It stuck with me because I'd just …
One person always passing along inspiration is poet Andrea Gibson. Dealing with sucky cancer, she manages to be human AND inspiring. Her latest post includes this line: "What is in the way is the way." https://andreagibson.substack.com/p/cancer-chemotherapy-voice-loss The obstacles are definitely in the way! And yet maybe they can be used, too. It stuck with me because I'd just heard the same message a couple days earlier! I was listening to an interview with Michael Caine on Fresh Air (another place I've gone for decades to refresh). At the very end Caine told a story about obstacles—and if you're a certain age you can hear it in Caine's voice: "I was rehearsing a play, and there was a scene went on before me and then I had to come in the door. And one of the actors had thrown a chair at the other one and it had gone right in front of the door where I came in. So I opened the door, and then rather lamely I said to the producer, well, look, I can't get in. There's a chair in my way. So he said, well, use the difficulty. So I said, what do you mean use the difficulty? He said, well, if it's a drama, pick it up and smash it. If it's a comedy, fall over it." Caine said it became a line that he used later for life. And it's going to stay with me: Use the difficulty. I'm thinking about what it means right now for writing.
Wow, I really love that approach! And I also like Michael Caine AND Andrea Gibson so much! Great inspiration.