ThriveCurve.com

Philip Glass in 12 Parts Doco

Saw this amazing doco last night. Its an incisive two hour window into how one of the most iconic composers does his thriving. Some key insights:

• If you are not upsetting a lot of people then you’re not doing your craft -  Craft is about letting your uniqueness come through
• Its not about contribution (though, of course, you really do)
• The craft speaks to something that really enrichs his life
• If you only use trued and true tools and techniques then thats all you will produce
• “Big things” emerge - its like being underground and hearing an underground river somewhere. Instead of directly looking for it, you do your routines and you sink in the time - the river finds you and takes you where it is going - you are the vehicle and it (for Philip the new music) was always there
• It is your life - get up early, work till late in your portfolio of activities
• It is your life - have a portfolio of activities that craddle your uniqueness - for him this is various moving meditations and exercises with different masters, family life, being a New Yorker - doing the evryday stuff and routines -
• With the portfolio of mediations/exercise/spiritual proactices, you look for new practices that fill in gaps or open new possibilities
• It is your life - surround yourself with a network of gifted very different individuals, and have regular quality time with them
• It is your life - shape the quality of it by the environments you inhabit and move between - for him its the buzz and life of NYC, coupled to the farm wilderness type enviornment he and Holly have on the Nova Scotia coast
• Learn and evolve from lots of very different teachers - from the harsh formal piano mistress in Paris to the loving approach used by Ravi Shankar
• When you do your craft you just make the quality time, be there, support yourself with the habits and it comes. Have lots of projects on the go at any one time
• The craft is “communicating” - for him its through music, painters its their art - the key is how to ingest this - for music being great at “listening”, visual arts through “seeing”. Passive - active going on here 
• It is your life - Moving between the Nova Scotia coast and NYC environments
• Live “young” - His much younger wife Holly, and family life with kids under 5 - he turned seventy in 2005 but appears to live with the energy and drive of someone half his age

It is striking to me how much of the above relates to my journey and the thinking in this blog - in particular:

• Try lots and keep what works
• Live and think young
• Get the right portfolio of habits
• Use different environments (eg Boyle River and the beach) to pump creativity, inner peace and wellness

Tags: buddhism, craft, creativity, environment, life_portfolio, living_young, music