So I'd ended up watching Wentworth Miller in an Oxford Union interview, because obviously waiting one episode a week for the crazy-suspenseful show that is Prison Break, is pretty much tv-agony.
When he was asked how he came to be so confident and open talking about himself, his past, and his sexuality, what he said struck me:
It's a constant kind of balance between openness and guardedness, confidence and vulnerability. It's not easy, but it reaffirms my sense of what balance is. I used to hear that word and I would think of this kind of like zen-like surrendered state, "Oh I'm balanced now." But what balance is, is more like a tight-rope walker, where you're constantly having to make little adjustments so you don't topple one way or the other. That, to me, is my new working definition of balance, and that allows me to be okay with... "I am speaking, this is my truth; there is beauty in being self-expressed, and it's also terrifying..."
This man is fascinating inside and out.
I struggle with this idea of zen-like balance too -- like sometimes I think, uggggh, why can't I stay in my zen-like surrender (i.e. syukr, gratitude, Islam, submission to God) all the time. It's exhausting trying to stay balanced. But this is the way it is, maybe; that peace and balance is an ideal that you struggle to stay on, as on a tight-rope. That's what life is about; it's not about reaching a zen place and thinking you've succeeded. That zen place doesn't exist. Not in this life, at least.
No comments:
Post a Comment