Acting Without the Drama

August 26, 2008. My children can’t match their clothes.

Heaven knows they try. There are so many failed attempts. Camouflage doesn’t typically match other types of camouflage. Stripes and polka dots are a bad combination. Purple and olive green don’t like one another.

Yesterday my daughter decided to strip everything off except her cream-colored leggings. She then put on her bright pink bathing suit…one with floaties sewn into panels all over its surface. She then asked us to put on music so she could dance. Techno. She put on her “mad” face and began to mosh.

I’m not sure where any of that came from. The combination of clothes was hideous, the music was obnoxious, and we’ve never demonstrated moshing technique for her dancing enlightenment. Where did she come up with that unique blend?

It was perfection. I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed so hard while trying to keep a straight face. It was a joyous moment made up of the worst collaboration of clothes, music, and dance styles in the history of man. The eighties had nothing on her (by the way, I’m totally mocking myself right now because I adore the eighties).

A Reuben’s sandwich is the same kind of thing for me. I hate rye bread. I’m not a fan of swiss cheese. Thousand Island dressing does nothing for me. Pastrami? Yeah, ok, I like pastrami, I suppose. Sauerkraut? Fugeddabouddit. And yet, you put ‘em all together on a sandwich, and it’s about as close to food perfection as you can come.

How can this happen? How can the collection of some of the worst things, when blended, become sublime? I have no idea.

I do know that it gives me hope. How many times do we wonder if we’re truly good enough, beautiful enough, talented enough to act? If you’re anything like me, the answer is somewhere in the ballpark of “all the time.” But it doesn’t matter, really. Just look at the Reuben’s. Sometimes the parts end up coming together to create something larger than the whole.

This is about a couple of things, as I see it. One is finding your family…those artists that you work the best with. Doesn’t mean that you all have to be “amazing artists.” Just means that you enjoy working together and you bring out the best in each other. Acting is a not a solitary thing. Acting by yourself is a little bit like drinking by yourself. Pointless, and more than a little sad.

The other part is not judging yourself too harshly. I may be the equivalent of acting sauerkraut, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be a part of a satisfying lunch. If we love acting, that makes us actors, at whatever level we decide to do it. And remember-actors act, right? So we throw ourselves in without judgment.

Today I’m going to wear stripes and polka dots together while eating a Reuben’s.

And if you don’t like it, you can lump it!

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