The Pink Carpet

Big Change a the Oscars

This year the red carpet
Is going to be beige. #change
Though I’m guessing we will still call it theredcarpet.
One word.

Lisa Love, the stylist in charge
Got very Pantone about the new beige
They’re calling it champagne.
But it’s beige.
It’s just ‘lighter’ she said.
That seems true.
And lord knows we could use some lightness.
But it doesn’t feel like whole story of why.

Jimmy Kimmel said the comedy thing
Confident no blood will be spilled this year.
Ha ha.

But really.
Why?
Yes the lust to change something - anything.
When we can’t change what we really want to change.

I’m not mad about it.
Sometimes the what you can change
Helps with the what you must but don’t know how to change.

I have a knee jerk no about it.
That I don’t think is just clinging.
Maybe the drift towards dressing down
Barefoot in droopy clothes on planes etc.
I don’t care for it.
A world worth dressing up for.
Whatever dressing up means to you.
I long for that.
And I believe it goes in both directions.
As most thins do.
You dress up for the world
It becomes a world worth dressing up in.
A world worth dressing up on
Helps you get dressed up.

And a beige carpet in terms of films?
Film is the ultimate dressed up art form.
The Effort It Takes.
That’s dressing up.
And that’s film.

But also.
We here in red carpet land
Sometimes hunger for the red carpet.
In maybe an unhealthy way.
We work towards it.
When it’s the work itself
We should be working towards.

So I tell clients
And myself
Think about wanting to
Walk the pink carpet.
That path of your own.
Lit up by your true desire, fantasy, imagination.
Created to walk on by your unique set of talents.
It’s not about the statue at the end of it
Or the paparazzi.
It’s about the work itself.

The problem is that it can feel like
Without walking the red carpet
You don’t get to do the work.
But you do.
Does any one of the statues
Open doors and make everything more possible.
The answer isn’t no.
But it doesn’t fix everything either.
You can do the work without it.

I think pretty regularly
About the apocryphal Shelly Winters story
Sitting in a meeting with a young exec
Who asks her about herself.
And she takes an Oscar out of her bag.
Slams it on the desk.
Says something like here’s something about me.

And another one.
And here’s something else about me.

In my imagination this happens like a thousand times
Until this child boss melts into his chair
And someone with taste sits on top of him.

Those statues don’t mean nothing.
And maybe it’s healthy to aim there.
I mean sure work on your someday speech.
It might fuel you through those dark nights of the sole.
Soul. I know.
But also sole.
Through pounding the pavement.
Sole to cement.

And it’s the cement that’s the problem.
The hard thing under the carpet.
Whatever color.

Don’t let your heart get too familiar with it.
That hardness.

I say this partly because
Besides wanting to walk the red carpet
Other clients
And sometimes confusingly the same clients
Tell me they don’t want to be rich and famous.
Really?

That doesn’t seem true
I say.
Oh. Well. Right. But.
That seems like fear of the red carpet.
Which comes from wanting the red carpet.
And that boomerang : obsessive wanting and then fearing.
That is the recipe for hardening.

And of course the heart that works
That is soft
Is the greatest trophy.

And some questions in my own heart
About the edge caroet.
Is it a welcome equalizer?
What do the folks watching have?
Scarlet carpet?
Probably no.
Probably beige, I mean champagne, carpet.

We are you.
You are us.
We are we.
Ok.

Maybe it’s quieter this champagne rug.
The world has gotten loud.
The world is a lot.
Maybe beige carpeting is less.
Less loud.
Less separation.
Less urgent.
Less.
Shhhh.

Maybe it’s a signal of the end of the monarchy.
Which is where the red carpet started.
Right?

Red is passion.
Which we want.
We want that want.
But red is also anger.
And we want less of that.

So how do we not sacrifice the passion.
When we back away from the rage.
That’s a big question.
And one which the new carpet asks.
Without even asking.
It’s so clever this Love created carpet.

Looking forward to seeing it in action and then will know more.
Or less.
If you have thoughts after watching.
That’s what the comments are for.
Drop them there.

Infinitely Yours…

xx

b