This isn’t the post I planned to write today– that was going to be about interviewing nerves– but I spent the weekend watching “A Bowie Celebration,” a tribute to the man 5 years after he left us, and metabolizing the events in Washington, D.C. And I started thinking a lot about both humanity and why I’ve loved David Bowie my whole life, and what the gifts are that he gave me. (They aren’t unrelated.)
What I came away with was the idea of personal truth—authenticity, if you will. We spend so much time taking in information about what’s acceptable and normal, and for some of us, those messages can do some damage. Some of us are black sheep, eccentrics, even oddballs. We have a sense of being just a little out of step with what’s mainstream, and we often struggle to make sense of that. But it’s the odd sucks who often have the most lasting impact, who change the world most deeply, and who inspire those around them. And it’s the best of those people who do so with deep humanity and a reminder that, as Ziggy Stardust told us, “You’re not alone.”
When I made my decision to leave my old job and go out on my own, what kept me moving forward was this lyric:
Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a meter and then stepped aside
Somebody else took his place and bravely cried,
“I’m a Blackstar.”
We have big shoes (fabulous silver platforms, ideally) to fill with David Bowie’s passing, but I think the way we do that, each of us, is by truly embracing who we are, and doing so with kindness and generosity. As the artist Momus says, “It’s as if I’ve accepted that what’s left of him is deep inside me, and so many others. He’s been distributed through us all. It’s not a dead legacy, it’s something encouraging and creative, as he always was.”
So, who are you? What will your contributions to society be? What do you need your work to look like? And what will it take for you to step in and be a Blackstar?
