When Things Fall Apart: prepare for success, delight in catastrophe

When things fall apart…fall in love! Yes, we embrace these opportunities to fail messily and find some way to beauty. In the same way that we embrace obstacles, when things fall apart, there is a chance to find something completely new if we allow it. The more prepared we are, the more we can improvise. Imagine a car mechanic having a car issue on the road vs me having the same issue. A car mechanic might find a bungee cord and a water bottle to boot-leg a leaking radiator. While I would be walking home.

In the same way, the more fluent we are, the more prepared, the more we know, the more we create beauty out of disaster.

In Sarah Ruhl’s wonderful book on being an artist while being a mother with small kids, she shares the story of a performance that fell apart and then came together in a most unexpected way. Her play performed in a church in Brooklyn, but one night, the fire alarms went off, forcing the cast, crew, and audience outside. The actors found their way to the steps of the church and…

“…slowly the audience quieted and gathered round, and somehow, one after another, the actors performed their scenes with no blocking, no props, no nothing, in silent agreement.  A stage manager improvised a lighting cue with a flashlight, pretending to be a car; a cross was improvised with two actors hoisting up another actor; a sound cue was somehow found on a computer.  I kept thinking one of the actors would stop, but in silent agreement they simply kept doing the play. When boat puppets were called for and a wind machine, the actors pretended to be boats and made the sound of the wind…Eventually, we were led back into the church and finished the play, but I longed to stay out on the steps of the church.”

—Sarah Ruhl, 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write

This week, prepare for success, but delight in catastrophe!