…however you live,
Excerpt from “Finishing the Hat” from Sunday In The Park With George by Stephen Sondheim
There’s a part of you always standing by,
Mapping out the sky,
Finishing a hat…
I don’t always feel like Sondheim’s George Seurat does in that remarkable musical, but I do feel drawn to lean into it sometimes. Consumed by your art to the degree that the rest of the world vanishes.
The balance is hard to achieve: on one side, immersing yourself in your art to the point where it is always occupying part of your conscious mind, whatever else you’re doing; on the other side, setting work aside to be fully engrossed in all the other joyful parts of living.
When you can, even briefly, find that balance, it is a joyful thing. The rest of the time, you deal with the frustration of standing by too little or standing by too much.