Everybody had a good year
I’ve got a feeling – The Beatles – Let it Be 1970
Everybody let their hair down
Everybody pulled their socks up
Everybody put their foot down
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Please excuse the long title.
And the fact that “wet dream” is in it.
My apologies.
I know you’ve all been on the edge of your seats wondering when the superstar blogger Tara Borman would finally make another post for chrissakes. And here it is.
I am a perfectionist
I am also a potty mouth (not related) (I’m working on it okay? Jesus f-ing Christ)
Ya girl’s got a lot of anxiety, and a deep rooted need to be liked. Like, by everyone. And the fact that I am so anxious and self conscious really holds me back from just fucking doing it, ya know?
So I watched the Disney+ special on The Beatles. Yes indeed, I watched all seven and a half hours in one day. I mean, okay, ya, I played games on my phone (my new addiction of “Covet Fashion” – so dumb, but you should try it… and of course my old stand-by addiction: Candy Crush). I took a shower at one point, I did the dishes, did my laundry…now that I think about it, it was a rather productive day despite the 8 hours of television watching.
The thing that was so compelling about this documentary was all of the failure.
Okay, let me back up. If you haven’t seen it yet – this is a mini series comprised of found footage and deliberately filmed footage of The Beatles in the midst of recording their 1970 album “Let it Be” – under the working title of “Get Back”. It leads up to their iconic surprise performance on the roof of their studio at Apple Records.
There’s drama, there’s a lot of chatter, there’s excitement and silliness, there are a lot of unknowns, and a lot of underlying pressure and stress. To me, this series truly shows the difficult work of an artist’s process. Throwing ideas at the wall and mostly failing, then chipping away at the big ideas that might be good, until these ideas actually are good. Chipping away at these ideas until they actually become art.
Creating something out of nothing is not an easy and natural snap of the fingers. It is not magic. It takes bravery– To be comfortable enough around your fellow artists to speak up about your ideas, even if they are stupid or ridiculous or just plain bad. And to have the willpower and work ethic to take those “bad” ideas and maybe find something good in them. To not just throw the bad ideas in the trash, but to hammer away (haha “Maxwell’s silver hammer”) and fuss with them until it becomes a spark of something good.
Even the forever iconic BEATLES have bad ideas. Like, A LOT of bad ideas. But their artistry and their hard work always persevered to finally discover a mind-blowingly incredible creation hidden underneath all of that “bad”.
It’s hard for me to just start things. Just throw some words on a page. Just call that agent. Just sing that song. Just sign up for that audition. And lets be honest, I am definitely not going to proofread this post. I am definitely not going to “whittle away at it until it becomes art”. But that’s okay, you’ll read it anyway, non-sequiturs and bad grammar and all..
^There. I’m even going to leave that extra accidental period at the end of that last sentence. I’m going to let myself be imperfect and brave. I’d rather be that than a recluse who never tries. I’ll leave you with my all time favorite quote (I say this about a lot of quotes, but this quote in particular means a lot to me).
I’d rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are, for a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I’d rather be a has-been than a might-have-been by far, for a might-have-been has never been, and a has was once an are.
So I urge you to follow my trepidatious lead. Let’s be brave! Let’s make mistakes! Let’s fall down over and over again and get back up! Because otherwise, what is the POINT.
