Acting Choices

Are you seeking security or adventure?

When acting a role on stage, we constantly make choices. Why does my character say that then? What happened to the character in the past that led to this moment? What in my life is similar that I can use to relate to this event in the play?

Life also contains constant choices. Those who feel trapped, or Calvinists (a religious belief I never understood), feel they have no choices and that everything is predetermined, but life presents us constantly with instances where we need to decide an outcome—and often the decision is more complex than flipping a coin.

This is all preamble to the prompt, which I believe suggests a false dichotomy. Maybe it works on a dating app, letting a potential mate decide if they want “a homebody, content to snuggle on the couch” or “an adrenaline junkie, I’m hanging off a different mountain every weekend!” Of course there’s a wide spectrum in between, but I want to suggest a blend of both.

For example, my investment portfolio has some items that are risk adverse and others than dip more than one toe into volatility. But, like ebony and ivory, which can live side by side on a keyboard, they can exist in the same portfolio.

And we can be secure and adventurous at the same time. I would hope so, in that example of mountain climbing; please attach your spikes and ropes to something! In our daily lives, we can enjoy a little bit of both. Try that spicy dish. Return that call of the person who contacted you on the dating app. Take that new job….

Funny story, short version: a former student called me one evening and wanted my advice. She was working at a Verizon store (secure) but had been offered a position as a finance person on a Netflix series—but it was only for nine months (adventurous). She had all the con arguments listed: it’s a short time, leaving a known position for the unknown, what happens after? I told her to take it; she would meet people in the new position and find new opportunities beyond that; it would be exciting; she would learn new skills that would be applicable beyond that office, and a few other reasons. I also told her that, if it didn’t work out, she could blame me.

She took the new job. That Netflix show lasted two seasons, and she’s been employed on various other shows since then. And I had the pleasure of seeing a student’s name on the credits of a major Netflix offering. She seems to have had adventure and security. Maybe we all can.

Do you agree? Let me know in the comments, and please like and follow!