My wife and I are currently in India for a few weeks attending the wedding of my dear friend Mukul. Weddings in India are a HUGE event and this particular celebration will see nearly 800 people in attendance. That big of an audience requires weeks of planning, scheduling, organizing, coordinating and rehearsing. Eventually, all the preparations will lead up to “Showtime” when Mukul will enter the stage on a white horse waving a sword, wow the audience by reciting a litany of ancient marriage vows and claim his wife as his very own. Then finally, after all the curry and naan bread has been devoured, and the lights go out on the dance floor, all 800 guests will return to their homes and villages, and Mukul and his beautiful bride Neha will embark on a romantic honeymoon in Paris. A beautiful love story indeed.
However, while the prep is very similar, the artist’s love story is much different. After weeks of planning, scheduling, organizing, coordinating and rehearsing, eventually it will all lead up to “Showtime” when the artist will take the stage and wow the crowd with her unique form of creative expression. After that, the lights will go down, the doors will close and the audience will return to their homes and villages. However, as opposed to enjoying a lovely honeymoon, the artist will be left alone, to begin the process all over again.
The true artist never stops. When the audience has finally gone home and is sound asleep, the mind of the artist is still awake, creating, imagining and dreaming an impossible dream. The only real honeymoon for the artist is to just keep working, keep growing, keep learning and keep improving her art—in preparation for the next “Showtime.” A beautiful honeymoon indeed.