Like A Gown Held Together With Safety Pins

By Mariah Secrest • Nov 17th, 2009 • Category: Artists in Residence

Hoobastank has a lyric that often takes us space in my peripheral conscience:

                                                 “But it’s too little too late.”

A melancholy theme song, for sure, but quite relatable. The day-late-and-dollar-short syndrome afflicts humankind with all too great a fury. But I know I invite it upon myself in undue proportions, typically taking on at least twelve projects at any given time and wondering why I don’t have adequate resources to execute them all. If I could just stay focused, then I could really reach the next level of success with my music, start a non-profit while advocating for two others, conduct a couple of side businesses, train for a marathon, do all my own natural vegetarian cooking, and still devote ample time everyday with my significant other, while maintaining close relationships with family, friends, listeners, and my professional team.

The enormity of my dreams dwarfs and insults the meagerness of what I have to show for it all. I feel like my life is a showy presentation with gaping holes in between…you get the idea that it’s supposed to be something grand if you could only figure out what in the world is going on. And the performance industry is good at covering up what’s lacking—adding prosthetic glitz to conceal the fact that no one—no one—really has their act together. Every one of us is an exquisite gown held together by safety pins—frail, touch-and-go, capable of tremendous beauty, and collapsible at any moment. But this is what it means to be human—trying and failing and winning and still coming up short and trying again. We are each scrounging around our purses for the last few needed coins; we are each scouring our daily schedule again and again to find that extra hour.

I suppose the winners are the ones who keep trying, not for the fact that they will ever beat the system but for the fact that they exert enough energy to confront each failure. Success is a choice. Not a choice to keep a perfect image but just to keep going. That’s where beauty happens. We are delicate creatures. But delicate is beautiful, and delicate is humble. So we must be both.

Tagged as: Mariah Secrest

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