Pain promotes output, or why I want to be a pilates instructor...

So, I said yesterday that I had a doozy for today, I just didn't know what it was about until the events took place to make it happen.

First, from yesterday's post an amazing creative director friend of mine, Nick Guarracino, responded: "you have to accept something...you're an artist, like me. We as a species are in constant battle with the world in our heads (how things "should" be) and the world outside our door (how things really "are"). That source of frustration will nag us to our dying day...and that's kind of the point. Happiness is for all those zombies walking around out there, oblivious to the injustices of everyday life. We're different. Our sight comes from somewhere other than our eyes. Our happiness comes from acting on those feelings..painting, drawing, writing. Besides, happy people make shitty writers. ;)"

Second, on the second floor of the building across the street from this Starbucks is a pilates studio, and I'm pretty sure the guy currently helping a woman with a deep stretch, has the best job on the planet. I may have found my second calling... (is he serious? I ask myself the same question, every day). 



Let's talk about the first...first. 

Some people apparently read Nick's response as, "being creative makes you a depressed asshole, who looks down upon the rest of the idiots in the world." Please please please, don't think that's what he meant (I asked him to make sure, because I didn't read it like that at all). I do feel in my head as though I'm in a constant battle, I love writing and how it makes me feel, and I do think a lot of the population doesn't act on or even question the world we live in. I took his response as, "Jason, you see the world in a way that makes you NEED to write it down, to show people what you see. Never be lazy, never lose that drive. Happiness can be a driving force, strive for it THROUGH writing." I don't think he truly meant to say "zombie" in a negative way, but more a... Don't settle for what's handed to you... Strive for more, because a lot of our culture just accepts what's given to them. Never be complacent. Ever. 

Now second...after the first...which would be, now:

When I got to my Starbucks this morning, it was closed. A sign on the door read that they wouldn't open until 7:15, which meant I had 20 minutes to kill (yes, I wake up stupid early to write in the morning, today I slept in and hit the snooze at 5am). At first, I was angry, then I thought about yesterday, and the new book I'm reading (Beverly Donofrio's Astonished, pick it up when it comes out next month). I can be pissed off about having to wait a few minutes or I can look for opportunity. I walked up the street repeating in my head, "where is the opportunity, where is the opportunity, where is the opportunity." The mantra flowing through my head, I remembered what I saw earlier, before I saw the sign on the door. Outside of the shop was a beautiful black Maserati. I walked back to it, wishing it was mine, wondering whose it was, where they lived, how they could possibly own it AND live in the city, all of the normal dreamy stuff I think about.

Staring at this car, I took a look around at the buildings, wondering in which one the person who owned it lived. The brick lofts across the street? Above the tavern? Then, I saw a building called the Gansevoort. I can only imagine the inside of this beautiful building, which also houses the Exhale, pilates studio on the second floor, is where they're staying. The two things I thought about were that, the instructor has to be the happiest person on the planet and I want to live in a building I'm in love with from the outside. So, here's my next long-term goal. Within 5 years, I'll be living in a building like that, with a job that lets me take my passion and my pleasure to find my higher purpose... remember yesterday? Sex, Love, and Rock n' Roll... I just realized that statement is supposed to be Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll, and no one said anything! Meh, I like mine better, anyway... 

I want to finally grab on to the daily reasons to be happy.

(to be continued)