Imaginary Lives
"We do live, all of us,
on many diferent levels,
and for most artists the world of imagination is more real than the world of the kitchen sink."
- Madeleine L'Engle
Circle of Quiet p. 89
Exercie #8 in week 1 of Julia Cameron's Book the ARTIST"S WAY asks, "If you had five other lives to lead, what would you do in each of them?"
WHAT FUN!!
OK -- so If I weren't a teacher (I won't be in a few months!) what would I be???
SECRET LIFE #1 - DIRECTOR OF SOMETHING preferably something musical
I'd love to work and plan and create with a major symphony orchestra, or with some really innovative and cool organization (like Kronos, or Yo-yo Ma). HHhhhhmmmmm.......with the Art Admin. degree I COULD be doing this in the not too distant future!
SECRET LIFE #2 - STUDIO MUSICIAN
Wouldn't it be fun to have my own little part on a CD or Movie soundtrack? I'm nowhere near good enough on ANY instrument to be a backup stuido musician, plus I'm a rotten sightreader, and can improv in two keys (and then only when I'm alone with my CD player!)
SECRET LIFE #3 - HISTORIAN
Sorting through the dusty papers of Thomas Jefferson, reading the Queen's letters, listening and recording stories of their time in the service and the Great Depression -- that would be a great job! Hiding out in Presidential Libraries and discovering all kinds of new history -- oh wow! I'd love that!
SECRET LIFE #4 WRITER
This is actually rather funny. I love to ramble and write down my stream of cnciousness thoughts, but writing anything "real" is so frustrating. (And then proff reading, spell check, eleiminating passive voice and all that other "junk" makes it even worse!)
But in an imagenary life, I can hire an editor to take care of that. Travel writing, or being a music critic would be cool (Get paid to travel around the world, meet famous people, sit in the press seats at concerts hhhmmm....)
SECRET LIFE #5 ASSISTANT CAMP DIRECTOR
I don't know want to be a camp director - too much responsibility, too many people yelling at you, and too much time in the office. But the assistant director can go out and play (I mean "help") with campers and staff during the day, and is still close enough to "the top" to be involved in important decisions (Like veto-ing the counselor hunt!)
SECRET LIFE #6 CHEIF
I wouldn't want to spend all day standing over boiling water, or do that silly cook off show where one has to make 5 different dishes with 17 ingredients -- but to bake and cook and make stuf (Probably not a gormet chef - I don't follow rules very well!!)
SECRET LIFE #7 ANIMAL TRAINER
There is a lot of similairites between teaching chidren and teaching dogs (really, I even started writing an essay/article about it for the Suzuki Journal - until I realized how many people would be offened that I compared their kids to dogs!!) Dolphins would be cool to work with too (I just re-read MLE's Ring of Endless Light -'cause my grandfather is "dying" (or not living) too - and that book always puts me in a dolphin-y mood.
SECRET LIFE #8 Travel Guide I don't want to be the woman waving the umbrella around all day -- I want to be the person who knows something and tells all the humorous little stories about dead people. I don't want to be a tour guide for a really strict tour either (On my tours, everyone gets 5 hours to explore the museusum on their own -- instead of just a movie and gift shop time!)
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