Wednesday 19 January 2011

Musings from Morocco

Just returned from a cheeky start to 2011 surfing, sunning and stuffing my face with tagine up and down the Moroccan coast. My winter sun reading was Pat Kane's The Play Ethic and I've been musing on it's meanings for me - both professional and personal.

The book written with a verve and energy that is inspiring, and while much of the theory occasionally feels fuzzy in that it's quite broad and doesn't rough out a clear way forward, the underlining message: that by rejecting the work/play binary of the Protestant work ethic we can allow ourselves to fully embody our lives and be creatively in control of every aspect of it - felt very right to me. My partner, who is also freelance, could not understand why this was such a strong and (for some) radical message - all those successful in his field are by necessity those who are successful 'players': combining commercial popularity with artistic integrity.

I think it's really exciting to live this way - I often feel frustrated by those who can only see the instability and financial uncertainly in my freelance lifestyle. Living by the 'play ethic' doesn't mean having to work within the arts, or being self employed or freelance. But it does mean having a sense of authorship over your life - a feeling that your life has meaning in it, and you are able to control and manipulate the elements of it to some extent.

My life's motto for several years has been 'Nothing worth doing will ever be easy'. After a fascinating training session on inclusivity* recently I came to realise the main generator of exclusion was FEAR. True inclusion will always involve taking risks - on the part of the participants and the providers. And so: 'Anything worth doing will always be difficult and scary'. Doesn't scan as well as the first motto perhaps - but I think there's a fair bit of truth in it. I've now been self-employed for nearly 6 months and 'difficult and scary' certainly sums up many moments - particularly facing my financial realities - but the challenge of seeking out work, being creative (nearly!) every day and getting involved with some great companies has made it worthwhile - here's to 2011!

*This training was run by the same youth theatre I've been volunteering for and blogged about last time. Just to keep you updated we've now halved the group size and no longer use the library as part of the sign in procedure. The group is now working on a performance of Hansel and Gretel. No more bookshelves have been jumped off. So sometimes you do need to say no (and step back, rework until you can say yes again)