There is Life After the Thesis

After chronicling my thoughts, feelings, ideas, and experiences throughout the thesis process on this blog (formerly entitled Rites of a Thesis), it seemed odd to me to simply let the blog go just because I had turned in my thesis and graduated. I don't want to merely "shelve" my thesis nor do I want all that I got from my time at Naropa to lie dormant. I want my thesis to continue to live and breathe and become, and I would like all the teachings and experiences I had during my time at Naropa to do the same. So I am keeping the blog (changing the title), and am commiting to myself to (w)rite on as I journey forward.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Marge, Where are You? And Where IS my Inner Brat?!

My creativity mentor, Jill Badonsky (check her out at http://www.themuseisin.com/, and you can check out her blog based on her way cool book, The Awe-manac, over to the left, below "Blog List"), wrote a book entitled The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard): 10 Guides to Creative Inspiration for Artists, Poets, Lovers, and Other Mortals Wanting to Live a Dazzling Existence. In her book she updated the nine muses from ancient Greece, to aid us 21st Century mortals in breaking through insecurities, procrastination, and other things that block our creative powers and abilities.

One of the muses she created was Marge (based on the Frances McDormand character in the movie Fargo), muse of Okay-Now-Let's-Get-Started. Jill gives four very good reasons for when it would be best to "summon" Marge, one being when "You are overwhelmed with the task before you - you feel immobilized, frozen, inert, and not quite sure where to start, so you reconsider starting at all" (Badonsky, p. 218).

Well, here's the deal: I am in the midst of re-working my thesis Literature Review, and I've started, but now I'm "inert." I am not reconsidering starting over, but I am considering stopping, and I really need to push through and carry on for a bit more this evening, so that I complete what I need to for this week's deadline. I thought, that if perhaps, I took a break and reached into my bag of tricks for some inspiration, I might be able to get myself back on track.

Here's the thing: I know that I don't have to do some bang-up stellar job this evening. I merely have to put fingers to keyboard and get something out. In the Marge chapter, Jill quotes Woody Allen: "Eighty percent of success is showing up." And I can do that...if I just get out of my own darn way.

The thing is, that inert feeling is really my whiny, rebel baby saying, "But I don't wanna!" In which case, Jill has offered up Bea Silly, the muse of Play, Laughter, and Dance. And do you know what Bea Silly would have me do? She'd have me do a little two-step, Cha-Cha-Cha, a 190 degree twirl ('cause it's always good to twirl to your own set of degrees), channel my inner brat and say, "So what, I'm doing it anyway!"

It's hard to remember all my tools when I am stuck in the muck. But just taking a break and going back to the basics is like getting a little nudge, a little nectar and ambrosia power boost. So I'm off to "show up" for my thesis. If I don't post tomorrow, you'll know I twirled right off my axis!

1 comment:

Joan Griffin said...

I always think of the "I don't wanna and you can't make me" response as coming from my spoiled Princess-and-the-Pea Persona...

"I shouldn't have to do this! I should have servants to take care of tasks such as this! Where is my personal secretary? Where is the butler? I have more important things to do with my time!"

Do you know that Princess?