America’s Fallen Idol

Quote of the day: “Life is just a chance to grow a soul.” —A. Powell Davies; minister

I grew a soul this weekend (see quote of the day)…in the dance studio. In my post on Friday, “The Many Faces of Fear,” I talked about the fear of creating a dance piece with a friend of mine. I had never done anything so formal, and quite frankly, out of my comfort zone.

More specifically, since I am new to my own creative process of choreographing dance, I was afraid I’d fall flat on my face and not find any inspiration. Plus, we’d be creating “together,” which I had no idea what that would actually look like.

To the contrary, it went great. The inspiration came effortlessly, and precisely from the soul. Where else could it have come from if I haven’t had years of modern dance training? African dance, yes. But, modern? Not so much. It must be in the soul. How else could I do it? We didn’t finish the entire song, but that’s OK. I am overwhelmingly pleased with what we did create. It’s beautiful, fun, and a reflection of us.

It wasn’t scary at all. As with most things we’re afraid of in life, the thought of it turned out to be scarier than the actual act. Why is that? Do we try to protect ourselves in case it does become too difficult and we get our feelings hurt? Or, are we conditioned to self-sabotage?

Maybe the real question is, why do we never feel good enough?

I can say why. It’s because we live in a society that constantly compares and competes. We reward the “best” talent. As a culture, we love to judge. Take a look at the number of talent competition TV shows that have been created over the past few years: American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, America’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Best Dance Crew, etc. The ratings for the majority of these shows are through the roof.

People love to be the best. I know I always did, especially when it came to sports. I loved to compete and win. Losing? Not so much. I tried to avoid it at all costs. But as I’ve developed my Self more consciously over the past X years, I’ve realized that what I really yearn for is to give my best; not necessarily be the best. In the end, when I’ve given my best, I’ve already won.

But I can’t help to wonder about the people who audition for these shows, fully confident and believing they have a chance to win, only to fall short and be told by the judges that they are utterly and completely awful. If you’ve ever seen one of the American Idol episodes when they’re traveling from state to state, holding open auditions, you know the contestants I’m referring to. I wonder how their sense of Self is so different than what we see as viewers and judges. Is it better for them to live in their reality than the outsider’s reality?

I don’t have the answer here, but what I’m getting at is maybe it’s better to lower our expectation of what’s “good” in effort to do what we fear. Not everything we do in life is meant to be a competition, let alone that we be the best at what we’re doing.

Some things in life are meant for the pure enjoyment of it—no strings attached.

Maybe therein lies the answer to the American Idol contestants…