The mayhem vs. the moment
Some recalibrating words from the late, great Tom Stoppard
Usually, I begin these field notes with a snippet of poetry or a compelling quotation, and then unfold an idea or insight to inform arts management practice. This week, with the end-of-semester mayhem in American University’s graduate Arts Management Program whisking me sideways, I’m flipping the script. This opening is from me. What follows is from the late, great Tom Stoppard.
In Shakespeare in Love, Stoppard describes the natural condition of the theater business (and by extension the arts business) as “one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.” So what do we do? “Nothing. Strangely enough it all turns out well.” How? “I don’t know. It’s a mystery.”
This short monologue from Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia calls us to dwell in that mystery rather than any particular destination.
Because children grow up, we like to think a child’s purpose is to grow up. But a child’s purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn’t disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into each moment. We don’t value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life’s bounty is in its flow. Later is too late.
Where is the song when it’s been sung? The dance when it’s been danced? It’s only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour. But there is something wrong with this picture.
Where is the unity, the meaning of nature’s highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and willfulness have their correction in the vast underground river which without a doubt is carrying us to the place where we’re expected. But there is no such place. That’s why it’s called utopia.
May we all find stunning moments amidst the mayhem. And may it all turn out well.
Photo by Josep Castells on Unsplash