Success
By Robert Bruce Baird, Fri Dec 9th
There is an axiom or three about success and what it means tobe sure. There is little certainty or anything to be sure about.I have had success and I have been on the opposite side ofthings a great deal to be sure. I am probably happier when I amnot rich but most people cannot fathom that. They think I amsome kind of ‘nut’. They often do not believe me when Idemonstrate my ego and its playful willingness to laugh at myself or say the opposite of what people think about me. In TheAutobiography of Alice B. Toklas we see Gertrude Stein had sometime to consider success as she sought to become ‘historical’.She and I are alike in this regard. “Mildred Aldrich liked Picasso and even liked Matisse, that ispersonally, but she was troubled. One day she said to me, Alice,tell me is it alright, are they really alright, I know Gertrudethinks so and Gertrude knows, but really is it not allfumisterie, is it not all false. In spite of these occasional doubtful days Mildred Aldrichliked it all. She liked coming herself and she liked bringingother people. She brought a great many. It was she who broughtHenry McBride who was then writing on the New York Sun. It wasHenry McBride who used to keep Gertrude Stein’s name before thepublic all those tormented years. Laugh if you like, he used tosay to her detractors, but laugh with and not at her, in thatway you will enjoy it all much better.
Henry McBride did not believe in worldly success. It ruins you,it ruins you, he used to say. But Henry, Gertrude Stein used toanswer dolefully, don’t you think I will ever have any success,I would like to have a little you know. Think of my unpublishedmanuscripts. But Henry McBride was firm, the best that I canwish you, he always said, is to have no success. It is the onlygood thing. He was firm about that. He was however enormously pleased when Mildred
was successfuland he now says he thinks the time has come when Gertrude Steincould indulge in a little success. He does not think that now itwould hurt her.” (1) Finding the right path or way of life is no easy task. JeanHouston’s book Jump Time has an interesting take on how one mustact or how to find this enigmatic Path. I think Jean confrontedme once in a bar in Lakewood, California. It was not as long ameeting as it should have been but it was (in retrospect) asimportant as the day she met Teilhard de Chardin in New York’sCentral Park. Whatever success my life may have in the eyes ofothers I now know I have found the right Path or Field for me.It was an arduous fight against what my Purpose on earth shouldalways have been and I love hearing about others who experienceda major turning-point in their lives. Here is one such storythat involves one of many people The Charmed Circle reached outto tap on the shoulder. “Her discovery of the right field came in 1923 and seems tohave been entirely serendipitous. The famous photographer ManRay needed an assistant, but insisted on one without previousknowledge of the craft. Young expatriates must eat, and Abbottapplied. Her lack of knowledge qualified her for the job. Soonshe was printing for Man Ray and discovering that she immenselyenjoyed doing darkroom work. Later, at his suggestion, Abbottbegan to take her own first photographs. Both were surprised todiscover how good she was. By 1925, with the aid of loans fromPeggy Guggenheim and from Robert McAlmon (one of the "charmedcircle" surrounding Gertrude Stein), she had set up her ownstudio on the Left Bank. There she pursued portrait photographywhich absorbed her at that time.” (2) 1) The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Gertrude Stein, 1933first publication, 1966 Penguin Edition, New York and London,pg. 133. 2)http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?StartRow=1&ID=5 About the author:Author of Diverse Druids World-Mysteries.com guest 'expert' |
