Giving The Finger (part 1)

       Let’s see if I’m clear enough for you to see straight into me. Let’s see if I’m a good enough artist to paint a picture so evocative that you feel it. Let’s see if I’m bright enough to shine so much light onto something that you experience it anew.     
       My challenge begs a much higher calling; to guide and empower you to see something in yourself. Something that supports you to live a bigger life. A more vibrant, expressive life. All from a silly story. A silly story? Yeah, maybe. Gotta aim high. I’ll never hit the stars aiming below the horizon.
       Here’s the story: I occasionally paint the middle finger of my left hand with fingernail polish. Why? Because it’s fun, and I like how it looks. Period. End of story. It’s that simple.
       It can attract attention, yes, but that is strictly an unavoidable by-product of doing it. I don’t do it with the attention objective. The fact is, whenever we do something unconventional, different, unique, outside the box, we will unavoidably attract attention. We will open ourselves up to criticism and judgment; even more than usual in our already highly critical and judgmental culture. 
       I don’t let what others think prevent me from painting my fingernail. I don’t let what others think prevent me from doing a lot of things. What others think, what others believe, what others say and do, however, is often what stops many of us from doing a lot of things we want to. That’s part of the human condition. It doesn’t have to be painting your nail. You have your own examples. We all do. Lots of them. Pick your poison.
       Now, despite my apparently cavalier approach, there’s a lot going on under my hood. It’s not that I don’t process the question “What will people think?” before I do something unconventional. I sometimes go through the anxiety and fear that accompanies out of the box behavior. In fact, one of my biggest fears, irrational as it may be, is that I’m going to do something so outrageous that I’ll ostracize the entire planet, in one fell swoop. That particular fear is an old tape, not rooted in reality. But it sits in my belly, and I deal with it.
        So I’m just like most of us when it comes to having the fear, the anxiety, of “What will people think?”. I just don’t let it stop me. My drive to express, to have fun, to create, to connect to those who do get me, is greater than my fear of pushing away the people who don’t get me. And greater than my caring what people think of me. David Lee Roth once said something like this: “Some people think I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread. Some people think I’m a total jackass. I must be doing something right!”.
       In part two, I’ll guide us to taming the voices that prevent us from doing certain things because we’re afraid of what people will think. I’ll guide us to liberating parts of ourselves that need a little freedom.

©2013 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.   

Comments

[Cli]

LARD I still have that nail polish !! XXXX

[Clint Piatelli]

Hey Cli. Great to hear from you. I hope you brandish the color as proudly as I do. That's a few layers of purple, overlaid with "DVD", which gives the nail that blue, iridescent sheen.

Clint
oxox