Image via The Weather Channel
In life, a few things are for certain: death, taxes, and left out of the age old idiom...hard times.
Life's challenges are seemingly never ending. They are going to come. What's more important is what you do with them afterwards. Who do you become, as a result? What did you learn and how will you apply the knowledge?
Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
Thankfully, I made no mistake on this one. As far as prep goes, we did well. We got gas, food, and all the little things that we needed to weather the storm. However, many people struggled as there were shortages on those necessities.
First come, first serve usually holds true and goes hand in hand with this. The lines were longer than I had seen in years for gas. Grocery store shelves were empty. I remember looking for bread one time and the aisle was completely empty. It reminded me of an apocalyptic zombie movie (minus the zombies).
That being said, remember to be flexible. You need to be adaptable in emergency situations. Anything can happen. "Anything" includes the unforeseen things that you can't plan for.
Give Thanks
Even when things look bad, it helps to have an attitude of gratitude. When you're left without many of the amenities that you're used to, you may have more time to yourself. You have time to think. I spent a lot of time in my head.
I thought about my current situation, but also who I would be after. I didn't think negatively as if something was happening to me, but about who I wanted to become.
I thought about the life I'm blessed with. Generally, we have many things that a lot of people don't have. When I didn't have something I was used to enjoying, I had to accept that we have things to be thankful for in real time. It wasn't some "let's sit around the Thanksgiving table and tell each other all the cliche things we're thankful for" business. Irma came through like Deebo and took my stuff. I didn't bother asking for my bike back.
Then, after the Hurricane Irma passed, there were other storms that destroyed the lives of others. It's hard to complain when Puerto Rico was in far worse condition than we experieinced.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
I can't tell you how many publicists, managers, and artists flooded my email inbox with mixtapes, singles, and whatever else they needed while Florida was literally underwater. To be fair, maybe they weren't aware. Maybe, in this digital age, in a world of seemingly endless information with coverage on numerous outlets, they managed to be out of the loop as a Category 5 hurricane barreled down on the Sunshine State (and various Caribbean islands).
Families were left without power for their homes. Neighborhoods and city streets were flooded. But hey, "so and so" needs a blog post. No problem. I'll fit that in right before travelling to my 5th gas station looking for fuel.
There were some people who cared enough to reach out and see how I was doing. I appreciate that. Those gestures will not be forgotten.
I had a realization through it, though. I realized that "I don't matter." I realized that the average person doesn't care about me. If you know me well, you know that I have a high self esteem and that I care a lot about myself. Please, don't think that I'm falling apart. I value myself, highly. Therefore, I do believe that I matter. I believe there is more to consider, though.
Jim Carrey had an interesting interview during E! Live from the Red Carpet's NYFW coverage. He went on an existential rant discussing how he doesn't believe in icons and gave me reason to think deeper about our existence, as we know it.
I'm not cosigning Jim Carrey's statements or claiming any of it as fact. However, I am thinking about them and seeing how they might apply to my experiences. Are we even here? Do we exist? Are we simply energy? - clusters of tetrahedrons, as he describes it.
At this point, for me, it's not so much the internal as it is the external. I mean that many people around me have shown me what the world is like on a macro level. The world doesn't care about us, genuinely. We are part of a bigger production in which we all play a role. Some appear bigger than others, in the moment. Some will have a starring role while others are here as "extras." At the final curtain, we're all just a part of the bigger picture.
I realized that the majority of the people in my email inbox don't care about me. They care about what I can potentially do for them. They see my credit in the movie that we call 'Life.' I have roles that they believe are able to help them with something. They care that I'm an editor/writer. They care that I have access to things they want.
There will come a day that I am no longer playing that role. One way or another, it will come to an end. If I'm still alive when I leave Artistic Manifesto, will the people that knew me in relation to AM continue to speak to me? Will they care about me, for me, as opposed to my ability to help them? I don't know. Some might while others may not.
What's most important, to me, is how I'm treating people. When I'm treated a certain way, I learn from it. In this case, I learned that I ought to treat others as an end in themselves as opposed to a means to an end. Everyone isn't going to be able to "do something for you" and that's okay. They're still someone.
Apply what you learn
In life, I want to apply what I learn, responsibly. Plan to the best of your ability and be adaptable, be thankful, and treat people like people. I want to leave this world one day knowing that I did my best. I did what I believed to be the right thing, in regards to others. I will leave this place in a better state than how I left it.
Thanks, Irma.
