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precarious position...

Just for fun, I looked up the etymology of ‘precarious’

Before it meant 'uncertain or dangerous', it was a legal term:

‘held through the favor of another, dependent on the will of another…'

Which I thought was interesting…

I first learned the phrase, come to believe, in a play by Caridad Svich - (I loved the play so much I directed it in two different countries, just to see how it would change and stay the same).

The entire experience taught me about beliefs.

I’d inherited quite a few, most of which didn’t feel true to me. It was the only the beliefs tested over time that became moral vows. Not because I dug my heels into the earth and refused to budge, but because I was willing to walk the path of another’s ideas and at the end, understood something deeper and wider about my own. Every time a belief was challenged, I gave myself the room to walk away from it. 

As for challenging some big ideas we learn from others, it makes me think of Shakespeare's Iago…

He’s the bad guy, right? Well… until you consider he was just overlooked for a promotion he felt he was more qualified for and deserved. He was the obvious choice for the job. And, he believes his wife is sleeping with many of the men he works with every day. You look at his exchanges with his wife, some of which is after public display of affection of Othello and Desdemona - and it's like watching a couple who have that extra something you and your partner don't... It's not easy. And it's easy to blame someone else for where you are in life. 

From there, of course, Iago makes certain choices that take him down a particular path – but if his character is predetermined before his first words are uttered, there is no chance for us to be moved by his struggle.

If we teach others and ourselves to see the world only as good and bad, we eliminate the possibility of empathy and getting to know people outside of our experience. 

But in order to get to this idea, I have to walk away from a few things I was taught about how people are and how stories work... 

always in motion, 
fia

P.S. 'precarious' is one of over 200 stories in 'songs of starlight'. Click here if you'd like to have the whole book all at once, so you don't have to wait for us to pick your favorite stories... 

thoughts for the week...

It's already October, and now until the end of year, it seems that time will move twice as fast. Here is Fia's take on how to find a bit of grace around this in her essay this week: a different way of self care...
 
Flying Edna is the home of internationally recognized artists, writers & teachers Brian Andreas & Fia Skye. Drop in to flyingedna.com to see more of the latest art & writing from The Studio & how that conversation of objects & ideas can help put you in motion towards a life you love...
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