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 INTRODUCTION
If I could, I would write this book on a ball. None of the principles
would be first and all of them would be first—and last. In fact, these
principles are not complete unless they are together. The ball would have no
top, bottom, beginning, middle or end. You can’t know what you’re truly
committed to until you are present, but you can’t be present unless you are
willing (Relaxation), and can’t move along your path without communication.
And, as soon as you commit to something, the barriers begin to pop up, so you
have to be present to get past them—on and on around the ball, turning it over
and over rolling with it through life. You have to keep it moving in order to
fulfill the four principles. And that’s what this whole book is about—creating
movement—movement along the path of your heart’s desires—movement towards your
realization as a human being.
However, I have to approach this in a linear way with language. Aha! I
thought. I’ll put the book on a spiral binding with four different covers, so
that the reader could start anywhere! Each principle would be the beginning or
the end of the book. So, I wrote this version of the book with that in mind.
That idea became complicated in actuality, so I chose to begin with the Being
Present principle. For me, personally, that’s where I must begin. You,
however, can open the book at any principle you choose and start with that
one. Start with whatever draws you. It’s up to you.
In the original version—many versions and many years ago—I began the book
with Commitment. That was when the book was called The Creative Explosion: A
Simple Guide to Brilliant Acting. It started out in my mind to be a book
about acting. The book wanted to be about something else altogether. I
resisted it and struggled with it. Finally I let it become what it
wanted to be about—how these principles of acting apply to life. I have found
over the years as a teacher that brilliance is not all that difficult or
unusual. Brilliant acting and writing happens in my classes every week. What’s
difficult is getting those gifts out into the world, following one’s authentic
path, and staying the course with grace.
As the purpose of the book changed with my own maturing, what never
changed are the four principles. They are the same. They have been the same
since they appeared to me many years ago. The change has been my understanding,
respect, and experience of them. I was focused more on material fulfillment.
They have always been aimed at spiritual fulfillment.
My struggle against the book is often the struggle that artists go
through with their own creations: letting them be what they want to be. It’s
the same struggle parents have with a child—letting the child be who s/he wants
to be. (“S/he”, by the way is my quirky way of representing she and he quickly.
It’s throughout the book.) Even the creation of the book cover typified my
willfulness and desire to have it be the way I wanted it to be. My
creative friend, Jed, who, among his other talents, is a graphic designer agreed
to design the cover for me.
Over the years I have wondered what should the cover be? What would
express the four principles? Then, one day, I was standing in my living room
admiring a painting on my wall. It is a beautiful painting by an artist named
Calley O’Neill who now lives in Hawaii. When she gave it to me for my birthday
years ago, she said it was a painting of me. The painting is a large
mandala that is divided into four separate squares—like the four principles, I
noticed. They are individually framed and hang on a wall that is painted a
complimentary color. In fact, I’ve designed my living room and my whole color
scheme to honor that painting. What is odd is that she painted it long before I
had known about the four principles. Aha! I thought. There is my cover!
Those are the four principles that were right there on my living room wall all
along! How right it seemed.
I asked Jed if he could photograph the painting and put it on the cover
for me. He was reluctant, saying that the intricacies of this large work would
not translate well onto a small page, but I insisted and he agreed to try. I
took one of the pieces to his home for him to photograph and scan into the
computer.
When I arrived, he had already done a mock up of the cover using four
squares and a simple symbol. It looked great. I was very happy. He managed,
with some difficulty to photograph the painting and scan it into the computer.
When it was finalized, and printed out, it clearly didn’t work. Jed had done a
good job, but it was, well, ugly. It so surprised me that I went into shock.
How could my brilliant idea not work?!
I said to Jed, “It looks so….well…formal or something. Don’t take
this personally. You’ve done a great job, but it’s…..ughhhhhhh.”
After a pause, Jed said, “It looks like the cover for a needlepoint
book.”
Yeah, it did. I had such a physical reaction that I had to “get
present.” I actually had to lie down. I cried a little. Boo hoo. “My book
sucks,” I thought. “What am I going to do?”
Jed was patient. He let me go through my stuff, and after I calmed down
said, “Formal means it’s not fun, right? Let’s try something.”
He picked up a bunch of wildly tangled colored wires and scanned them
into the computer. He put that mess behind the painting and it was so awful we
laughed a lot. After a good laugh, I said, “You know that thing…that simple
thing that you were doing before I got here and insisted on my idea? I really
liked that. Can you do something with that?”
And, in very little time, with no struggle, he created the logo and
cover. I love it because it is simple, easy, and creates movement—not to
mention the fact that it is actually the four principles on a ball: a beautiful
expression of them. I tell this story on myself because for one thing, I think
it’s funny, and, for another thing, because it typifies the creative process and
how the four principles work to keep things moving toward full expression.
Commitment, Being Present, Relaxation, Communication are all a part of that
story. I’m grateful to Jed for his partnership and patience.
It was my students who began telling me that the principles were
affecting more than their acting—that they were affecting their lives. In a
natural progression of the realization of the principles, I began doing a
two-day workshop called The Creative Explosion. The purpose of the
workshop is to “create the energy to start what hasn’t been started and to blast
through the blocks that are in the way of going where you want to go.” It is
about movement and self-empowerment. I have conducted four or five of those
workshops every year over the last 15 years and graduated from being the
“leader” of the workshop to what I call a “felicitator”—turning it over to the
participants more and more. The workshop has become more powerful as a
result.
I have watched as the
four principles help people open to a creative energy that is larger than they
are and challenges them to expand. This enormous Creative Force uses our unique
talents and personalities to heal and enlighten, make us laugh, feel, and open
our hearts. It connects us with one another. It relieves our pain and fear,
and teaches us to experience joy and ecstasy. When we can use that energy and
let it use us, it is a powerful, spiritual experience. This Creative Force is
what we desire in our hearts; yet because it is so powerful, it often terrifies
us. The Four Principles help us to get through that terror.
This empowerment and
spiritual enrichment is why I am so committed to creativity. The act of
creation is like throwing a new vision of ourselves out into the future. Once
it is created, we must grow up to it in order to take care of it. We create a
child and we must grow up ourselves in order to take care of it. We can turn
away. We can reject it, but it is there forever. It may take years to allow,
embrace, and empower our creations, but it is worth the time and effort.
Artists must empower themselves in order to take care of their own creations.
Our creations are our own teachers and our gifts to the world to be received
however they are received.
This book is considerably
bigger than I am. With each version I have had to grow to meet it and care for
it. It has put me through my paces. I have resisted it, yet it insists on
being. I have judged myself for hubris, yet it constantly reminds me that it
is a gift to be received by those who want and need it. I humbly hope that my
communication of the four principles is good enough to do them justice.
Copyright © 2003 E. Katherine Kerr The Four
Principles |
