I’ve been
very blessed in my life, with hard times and now, it seems, some very good ones
as well. But I want to share this story
with you, especially those of you who want to give up your life’s dream and
cave in to despair.
Around 1983,
when I was a very young and new comedian, my friend (and fellow fledgling
comic) Nick Carmen Cosentino were roommates. I had a small, failing, graphics business
at the time and my ‘office’ was located in a converted house in northern New
Jersey. My marriage had just ended and I
was sleeping in a photographic darkroom in the back while Nick spent his nights
sleeping on the floor in the outer office.
During the
day, we would write and try to book ourselves into some of the “Jersey’ gigs
which had just begun to spring up outside of New York City. At night, we would pile into my smoke
belching, oil leaking, 15 year old Volvo and head into the city to get some
stage time at the many little clubs around town. We didn’t care that we had no
money (and sometimes no food). We were comics with dreams and that sustained
us.
Money, as
most newbie comedians know, is non-existent, so we made some sheckles here and there,
Nick by traveling to NYC by bus (tools and all) doing odd jobs and me, still
taking graphics art work when it was available. Any money I made went to child
support and so we fell behind in the rent; WAYYYYY behind.
One night,
when Nick and I had returned from the showcase clubs, we arrived home to find a
big, fat, red padlock on the door with a very official eviction noticed tacked plastered
on the door as well. We were officially homeless, with all of our worldly
belongings locked inside.
We knew our days of living there were over,
but we went around the side of the house and snuck inside through a window
which had always conveniently been left unlocked. We grabbed what we could,
shoved it in the Volvo, and got the hell out of there before the police came.
Times were
hard then, but we survived with the help of friends. Eventually, comedy got
better for us and before long we were making a living in the business we loved.
It was a boom time and life was good.
Since then,
we’ve both had other hard times, but that experience in the house made both of
us realize that we could survive anything; thus the blessings part. In the
years to come I’ve had to go back to that memory many times in order to make me
realize that I didn’t ever have to give in just because life was pushing back
and pushing down.
Now, with
things breaking the way they are, I am feeling blessed once again in ways I never
thought possible. And so I just wanted to share some thoughts with you if you
are feeling down.
Every event, good or bad, is a story unto
itself. It has a beginning, middle and end. Look at your current story. Where
are you in it? You will survive no matter how bad things seem and you will be
stronger for having endured it.
Listen to
the still, calm voice inside you. It won’t lie to you. Believe in yourself.
Pay forward
any goodness you’ve received. Help others up the ladder when you can.
Understand
that life, if lived properly, is scary, dangerous and frightening, but it can
also propel you to soar to the heavens if you just look it in the eye and say, “I’m
getting up again and again and again until I get to where I want to be.”
Surround
yourself only with positive things and people. Walk away from those who tell
you that you can’t do something.
Dream like
you did as a child. Dreams don’t die, spirits do. All things are as possible
today as they were when you were little.
Lose your
expectations of how things should be and stay in the moment. There is no past
or future, only now.
Finally,
love everyone. You don’t have to be around someone you don’t like, but don’t
hate. It’s toxic and it hurts your insides. Love is the only absolute thing in
the universe.
I have no
idea what compelled me to write this. You have no reason to read it. If it
bores you, then move on. But if you are suffering or feeling down, maybe this will
help ease the pain a little. Just don’t
do anything stupid, okay?
