I recently listened to Elizabeth Gilbert talk about the fear she had after her huge success of her first book, Eat, Pray, Love. She was asking herself how she was going to keep writing after such a successful first try. She was in the process of finishing her second book and was questioning how we all relate to the moment of elation and the next morning when we have to get up and do it all over again.
I ask myself that all the time. “Will I be able to pull off this next job?” “Will I continue to fight to find the passion to do the best I can even after all these years?” “Will boredom or fear keep me from taking the risks to find a better way or keep the love of what I’m doing alive?” “Will I allow what others say I should be doing a reason to follow a road map I may not even want to travel?”
She said that in ancient times they believed that the inspiration or genius did not come from the human being but was graced from another power for that brief moment of genius. That the person was chosen to be the portal of that success for only a short period of time before it moved on to someone else.
That thinking sure does take some of the pressure off of always being successful. All right, the divine, help me out here. Come to me to help me and then if you must go elsewhere to spread the love, so be it.
The Greeks would use the word Allah to express who it was or what was happening. Allah, allah to you! Take this brief and blessed opportunity to create while that power is in you! However, don’t be sad when that entity, whatever it may be, leaves you to go onto the next person.
Allah was later translated into other sayings. Ole being one of them. The Spanish cheers on the bullfighter when he makes a brilliant move. Each time that mysterious entity appears in his movement they cry out for his success.
But sometimes when that brilliance is fleeting or so the artist thinks so, they become incredibly tortured for what they see as failure or worse, quit all together.
So I have to wholeheartedly agree with Elizabeth Gilbert and say ole! to all who keep on working and creating in spite of it all. We need passionate people who continue on even though it seems impossible. Because someone does the impossible and suddenly it’s possible. Ole.