She was sitting at a table in Manhattan, in the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel. This all happened in the mid-70’s, so she told Jay MacDonald from his BookPage interview in 2006. She was THE hot young DC based magazine writer du jour, being tapped by Playboy magazine to write an article on an up-and-coming director for what would wind up being one of her defining life moments. Within the span of an hour, she would hear a fateful voice in her head. It would tell her the solitary life she had painstakingly fabricated needed to be thrown out of a window. She was surely sitting in front of the man she just met but would soon marry. Marry, they would. Divorce shortly thereafter, they also would. Throw in a daughter and our beloved writer’s ensuing alcohol dependence and you begin to wonder why this story isn’t a movie. Or, maybe it was. After all, we’re talking about Martin Scorcese and a little film called Taxi Driver. And, the freelance hot to trot magazine writer? Her name is Julia Cameron. She went on to climb out of her deep dive into drug addiction and alcoholism. She teaches creative writing, still. While she’s written fiction, non-fiction, poetry, films, and even television episodes, her opus magnum is a written artist’s program called “The Artist’s Way” that inspires established and wannabe creatives to find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Today, we’re going to talk about her spine.
Imagine your own spinal column. No, really, play along with me. There’s your occipital bone, your cervical spine, your thoracic spine, and your lumbar spine. Now, instead of vertebra, imagine all of those letter/number combos, the C5 or the L7, are human characteristics. Maybe, hopes and dreams are right below your neck. Maybe goals and aspirations are nestled in your lower back. But, there aren’t only admirable traits in this spine analogy. There are things like fear, insecurity, and jealousy that occupy equally valuable space. When your spine gets out of whack, things hurt. I have the beginnings of thoracic scoliosis. I can promise you that a spine misaligned makes my entire body scream in revolt. It’s the same with these emotional traits. After all, it’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? Speaking for myself only, I’ve been more fearful in this past year than any other: fearful of sickness, fearful of loss, fearful of anarchy, fearful of the unknown. Maybe you’ve had similar experiences like sadness or anger or even an overwhelming blankness. Our emotional spines are out of alignment. Don’t misunderstand, fear, anger, and sadness are all crucial pieces of our being. Without fear, we would plunge headfirst into dangerous situations. Without sadness, how could we be sympathetic? It’s just that we need the harmony emotional balance creates just as we need our vertebra to line up for proper body function. Hopes and dreams miss fear. They’ll gladly move over to make a spot available. Goals, you’ve been hiding in the shadow of jealousy too long. Let’s get you guys back into your proper places. Insecurity, look behind you. The love vertebra scootched over just enough for you to pop back into place. Deep breath. Feel the crack. Exhale. But, how do we keep everyone in line?
Julia Cameron believes there’s a creative lurking in the soul of every person. No, we aren’t all untapped Michelangelos or undiscovered Shakespeares, but within us is a piece of humanity that appreciates the ability to create in some manner. We write. We paint. We cook. We dance. We sing. We all excel at something. Often, however, we suppress that desire to create because it doesn’t line up with our everincreasing list of tasks that populate our days. While that can be true, we certainly have the ability to make time to binge season 5 of Outlander, don’t we? Oops, maybe that’s just me. One of the mantras in “The Artist’s Way,” which I’m smack dab in the middle of, is this: beware of reversing cause and effect. I didn’t do anything creative today because of my overwhelming anger about something that happened to me. If you reverse the main characters in this statement, the meaning changes. I am overwhelmingly angry today because I allowed something that happened to me to affect my ability to do something creative. Quite a difference, huh? Julia goes on to say that the spiritual path she chose, her belief in a higher power, allowed her the vision to see a way out of her own self-destruction and into a creative pathway. Martin Scorsese agrees, saying her workbook is a valuable creative tool. Elizabeth Gilbert says that without “The Artist’s Way” there would have been no “Eat, Pray, Love.” Political activist, public speaker and California Hall of Fame writer Ann Lamott says it’s more about paying attention. “After all, that’s what being an artist is all about. It’s about learning to pay attention.” Mind, body, and soul, life is hard. While we’re out here taking care of our bodies, let’s remember that our insides need recalibrating maintenance, too. Within you lies everything you need to do anything you want to do. We just need a good crack in the back sometimes.
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