I'm going to come right out and say it: I find my thirties to be lovely so far. I'm not sure if my deciding to be that polar bear has positively influenced my thirties or vice versa, but so far so good. It's not that I didn't have a lot of fun in my twenties--I certainly did. I have some great stories and fond memories. It's just that this past month has been more consistently happy and chill. I like chill. In fact, these days I'm most excited about all my favorite TV shows starting up again.
Basically I've become much more content to just be. That probably sounds cliche and perhaps a little new-agey, but it's true. And I don't think this is the same as being complacent. I think too many people are afraid of becoming complacent and as a result they have a hard time being happy with what they've already accomplished. Don't get me wrong--it is important to live to your full potential, but not everyone is going to be the celebrity or the rich guy or the incredibly good-looking one.
The danger with this thinking is, of course, to never truly live to your full potential. Ah, there's the rub! It's just another fine line all of us have to walk on this tightrope we call life. Now, I'll be the first to say that in some respects, I haven't lived up to my full potential in life. At the age of 30, perhaps I should have accomplished more than I have. However, I have come to the realization that 30 is actually pretty young and that I've got a helluva lot more life to live. In short, there's time.
A large number of my friends are in the arts, and there's this tendency in the arts to constantly talk about what you're doing, what projects you've got going on, and what recognition you've received. Any time I have a conversation with someone in this group, we always ask each other, "What are you working on right now? Do you have any shows coming up?" Any time I go to an audition there's always some ring leader in the waiting room who starts a conversation about what everyone's done, what theatres they've worked with, which agencies represent them, etc. Everyone's constantly scoping out the competition, and it always carries over into social settings. It's enought to make a person feel inadequate if they don't have a long list of accomplishments to rattle off. Sometimes I think it would be more efficient if we all carried our resumes everywhere and just distributed them to each other.
A lot of this is, I think, our natural tendency as humans to compete with each other. You know, the survival of the fittest and stuff. It's just that it shouldn't always be about other people. Sometimes it's a very good thing to ask oneself, "This is what I really want, right? This is truly making me happy, right?"
Look at it this way: does a polar bear sit around wondering whether he's going to be the coolest polar bear on the ice cap? Probably not. He is going to make sure that he's well-fed, safe from harm, and happy at the end of the day. He strives to be good at catching fish and at impregnating lady polar bears, but he's not greedy. He's not going to catch more fish than he needs and he's not going to spread his seed willy-nilly simply for sport. If he's had a bad day, chances are he's not going back to his polar bear lair and stewing about it. Most of all, he's not going to be comparing himself to the other polar bears and fretting if his polar bear friends caught more fish than him in a particular day (for example). This is what separates humans from other animals: we like to complicate. Something tells me that polar bears don't complicate.
So this is my first initiative as an aspiring polar bear. You know, I think I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of this whole analogy. I think there's a lot to learn from those polar animals, and I plan to share my findings with you fine folks. But I won't always be preaching about the polar bear. I promise.
Until we meet again...
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