So, I was having a conversation yesterday with a friend who has particularly vivid and well-articulated ideas of what drives his artistic life. I asked him how he came to his conclusions with such certainty, how he was able to definitively name the force that motivates him. He replied by saying that someone once asked Michael Jordan what motivated him about the game of basketball. Michael Jordan replied that he was motivated by the spirit of competition and flirting with the idea of failure. That's great and all, but how did Michael Jordan arrive at that conclusion? Basically, he was asked to imagine a world in which basketball did not exist. What, in such a world, would be the driving force in Jordan's life if the medium in which he excelled was not a factor? Competition. Flirting with the idea of failure. That's universal.
So, I thought for a minute... If theatre and improv didn't exist, what is my underlying motivating spirit? It took me a very long time to answer the question because my rational brain kept interrupting, saying "Theatre and improv DO exist. They never would have NOT existed because it's a very human need to tell a story and share it with other people." After a long while (and lots of NyQuil, to be brutally honest), it came to me... I like puzzles. I like to figure out solutions from seemingly insoluble situations. In improv, you have no script, so there is a fantastically broad set of variables from which a solution (the scene) must be made. I like Shakespeare because an actor must understand the way he used the English language in overt and covert manners. Not only are there words to decode and unpack in Shakespeare, one must consider his use of metaphor and alliteration. And scripted comedy is a math problem, when it is at its purest and best. A plus B equals laughter. SO MANY PUZZLES!
As a teacher, the people in any given class are also a puzzle. How can I effectively teach an entire group of people with different skill sets and backgrounds? How can I address the needs of the group while effectively ministering to the needs of the individual? And, maybe more importantly, how can I continue to be there for the students after the class has ended?
It was an enlightening conversation, and one that I desperately needed.
I think everything is a puzzle. "Here's a pile of sentences in Swahili. What can you tell me about how plural possessives are formed in that language from the data?" You have three teenage sons. One's downtown at the comic book store, one needs to get to football practice, and the other wants you to bring him a Redbull on the way home. What's your optimal path? Sometimes the equations don't have solutions and you're got to kobayashi maru the sucker.
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