The Ideal Picture Comes into Focus...

Making it, faking it. Faking it to make it. 

Sometimes you feel like you are falling apart. You know, you are tired, and a bit brittle, and you seem sort of shaky. You are doing your best to hold it all together. You put on a "false front," in order to face the day. It's sort of like putting on the right sweater, the right pair of boots, the right hat for the elements. You are living up to a certain ideal that you have in your head, a picture of being happy, healthy, easy-going and free. That is the image you want to project into the world. So yeah, that's the mode. And you know what? As you go thru the motions of the day, that ideal picture comes into deep focus and sort of becomes true. That feeling of falling apart vanishes. You realize you are happy, healthy, easy-going and free. You make it. In the evening, you and your partner watch a fabulous, hilarious, super-intelligent, beautifully-filmed movie, "The Favorite," (2018) with a perfect cast of characters, actors performing at the height of their powers, and the best performances are from these incredible women. And it just works it's magic upon you both. And then, you put your headphones on to listen to a great album, "Gaucho" (1980) by Steely Dan, and when that finishes you put your head on the pillow and sleep like a baby. All your dreams are good. You make your connections, you excell at every task. Everything works out. Amazing. You wake up alive, refreshed. That's the power of living, the power of art, the power of paying attention. Yep. That's how to do it.