Power

I love your example from The Graduate. Potential is such a dynamic force, driving us to experiences life and all of the surprises and failures that it brings us. But potential can be a cruel, dangerous mistress, as young Ben discovers. Because it is nearly impossible to parse out the energy of potential from the emotions of our silly human minds and hearts. It often isn't the destination that rewards us, but the journey we took to reach it. Like I said yesterday, Ben's greatest joy is in the running - I wish he could run forever.

So, coming back around to the Blog and our task at hand. I want to talk about "Potential" as a muse. Potential makes us daydream. It leads us to fantasize about all we could be. But it doesn't give us any answers. Potential is far too easily contaminated by our willingness to justify poor decisions or cheat our way to the life we think we deserve. As ingrained as potential is in our American blood, I think there are plenty of examples from the past decade that show how dangerous potential makes us to ourselves and one another.

So I say - Deconstruct Her! Pull her a part to her core elements and find what is really there. What truly drives us? Because the possibility of the future will be there until we die and it seems selfish to me to use that as an excuse to take more than we deserve. Especially if all that potential doesn't actually lead to happiness.

Here's how I think potential wants to be used: to create. There is an infinite amount of potential out there. You could become a ranch hand in Montana and I could try base jumping in the grand canyon. Or you could take whatever potential that has meandered into your head and generate something new and far more valuable with it. You can create that reality as a writer and explore all of its possibilities and facets. I say capture potential. Hogtie that crazy bitch and get her on the page. We have the power.

Jen on 1/5/12