Resistance and Trouble
“The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working artist banishes from her world all sources of trouble. She harnesses the urge for trouble and transforms it in her work.” ~Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
I’m not one of those people that gets into trouble. And as for starting up any trouble, nope, not me. I like my life quiet. Just want to do my “thang” all by my little self, quiet, nice, without any arrows pointed at me. It’s not saying I haven’t been in the mix here and there in life, but quiet and small does me very well.
So reading this chapter left me not much to identify with in my own experience. However, if you think of the celebrities of today with all their high jinx it makes some sense. Pressfield notes that ill health, alcoholism, drug addiction, proneness to accidents, compulsive screwing up, jealousy, lateness, and anything that draws attention to ones’ self is all a manifestation of Resistance. Even acting cruel to others, and enduring the same is a form of Resistance.
“Trouble is a faux form of fame.”
Imagine that? It was enlightening chapter, to say the least, and I’m glad to have had my eyes opened.
