Life is performance art

Composing a life – the age of active wisdom

I listened to a really interesting interview of Mary Catherine Bateson, who is the daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson.  (Which must make her crazy. Because Margaret Mead was the popular cultural anthropologist of the 1960’s and 70’s.)

She has some really interesting takes on how to approach your life.  I want to share some thoughts on this as it may be handy to those of you in the New Year rediscovery process.

The interesting part for me was this concept of life being a piece of performance art.  Maybe it’s the romantic in me, but I like this metaphor better than all the goal-based, military inspired life-metaphors that we are commonly struck with.

The reason I like it is that it deals with the fundamental flaws of the structured approaches.  The chiefest among these flaws are that everything can be proscriptively and rigorously controlled as you execute your way through life.

The structured, goal-based metaphor casts you as essentially the project manager of your life.  Your life is a project.  Once you understand the scope and charter of that project you cleanly execute the tasks with the available resources and march towards your goals.  You break down any barriers with energy and verve until you reach success.

This approach considers life to be a like a messy shelf, that just needs to be organized.  You know, like that one where you keep the spices and you can never find the caraway seeds?  Did I use all the caraway seeds? Or are they in this shelf full of little bottles somewhere?

Why do most people follow this project management metaphor for life management? This proscriptive approach.  Because it has some advantages, of course.

What a prescriptive approach has going for it is:

It’s discrete.  Most people really don’t want to understand the bigger picture.  They just want to be told what to do.  What do I do right now to get two steps ahead of where I am?  Because where I am is uncomfortable.  Tell me the specific workouts I need to do to get to my race goal.

It’s efficient.  Once you have a discrete plan all you have to do is execute it. Saves you a lot of meandering about.  Allows you to focus your energy.  Do this today, that tomorrow, and not the other things.

It conforms to cultural norms.  Work hard.  Be successful.  Make money.  Have an impact.  You know the drill. If you’re not a millionaire before you’re 30 you’re a failure.  So, where’s your plan?

Gotta have a plan.

In essence this is a low-risk method and metaphor because it is the cultural norm.  It is very hard to go against cultural norms.  If you don’t believe me try walking your dog in a mankini. (you wear the mankini, not the dog, that would be cruel)

There are inherent flaws in the structured approach.

First, it is predicated on the fact that you know where you are trying to get to.  In reality it is very difficult to actually understand the desired scope and charter of this project we call life  (i.e. “what do you want to do with your life?”).  It’s especially hard to know that in advance or in enough detail and certainty to make the rest of the exercise work.

The second is that life is messy.  Life is non-linear.  Even if you have a discrete plan Trying to manage your life  as if it is linear is like trying to shovel water against the tide. There has to be wiggle room to change direction and deal with the inevitable ‘stuff’ that life throws at us.

And , if I had to pile on, I might say that a third thing the proscriptive approach to living lacks, is joy.  You’re so wrapped up in being more efficient and effective on your way to those goals that you don’t even notice when a butterfly lands on your nose.  Or, your march through your plan, achieve your goals and realize you’re not happy.

Oops.

Dr. Bateson uses the metaphor of treating life like an improvisational performance.  I think this sounds more real-to-life, to the chaotic nature of life.  She cautions not to wrongly assume that improvisational performances don’t require practice.  Just the opposite.  The great improvisational artists practice and learn continuously to be able to perform that improvisational art.

Think about how people talk about “Juggling” work and family.  Or “Work-life balance”.  What kind of image does that bring into your mind.  It’s quite stressful isn’t that? The image of juggling.  Trying to keep all the balls in the air, while riding a unicycle, on a tightrope, over a pit of fire…

Instead if we think of it as improv.  As preparing ourselves to excel in the moment.  To master the “Moments of truth”.  This changes the very nature of how we live.

The drive to get the most out of ourselves is still there.

The practices to acquire mastery are still there.

But we approach it with more abandon and more joy.

If you think about the people you know who seem to live life as water flows.  To take joy in that flowing.  But also to be very accomplished.  They are looked up to.  They are magical but they are also free from those cultural norms.

And your next question might be, “Sounds good, how do I do that?”

Well you can go listen to the interview “On Being, with Krista Tippet” and judge for yourself.

I have nothing proscriptive for you.  Just this kernel of an idea.  A thought.  How would you live if you thought of your life as an improvisational art form to be played as opposed to a project to be worked?

Would that make everything a bit more joyful?

I don’t have the answers.

I’m just asking the question.