Barely Holding On

And sometimes just a few words can wreck you; making you question your self worth.

For anyone that feels you need to "reality check" an artistic friend for getting too caught up in what they do, let me share something with you.

Many of them are fully, overwhelmingly aware of how little what they do matters to the world at large. Every time they perform to a small audience, every time they're knuckled under on price, every time a project falls apart or is poorly received.

They're often far more aware of their own short comings and failures than the world around them will ever know.

Because the stories of our losses only matter years after the fact, when we get to talk about how they kept pushing. If they didn't give up. If they didn't let their friends and loved ones "realistic" advice trying to help us see the "real world".

We see it. And we fight every day to survive in it. In a world that may not value what we do. But we'll do it anyway in our vain hope that we'll maybe bring a little light to the world. That we might make someone smile, or move them, or challenge them to be their best self.

We may just be using our art to deal with an angry, scary, sordid world that we don't understand. And this is our way of making sense of it.

So before you feel the need to tear us down, to "bring us back to earth", stop. And know for just a moment that some of us are barely standing. And with shaking knees, bleeding feet and tear soaked eyes, we hope for tomorrow, for another chance to touch the world in a positive way, or maybe just make it through one more day with our sanity intact.

Thank you very much.