What do you do if you have lots of fans, many people admire you, but you still feel insecure inside? Yes, you start hiding or running away from your fans, but most of all from yourself.
This happens to many famous people. I quoted Bob Dylan before: “Being noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So I disappear a lot.” That is hiding. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s a necessity to all artists in order to stay in touch with their creativity – as long as they don’t try to hide from themselves.
Others run away for themselves. They use alcohol and drugs because they think that reality is too hard to live in, it has to be softened by the drugs. And if it is not drugs, it might be women or anything that distracts from reality. In the music business this is still seen as ‘cool’. The myth of having a great life with sex, drugs and rock’n roll is very much alive and kicking. Even the final way of running away from yourself – suicide – is not uncommon in the music business and seen as kinda cool.
Running away from yourself is not reserved to famous people. I had a serious car accident when I was a child. I couldn’t cope with it and was fleeing in books. What I read was far more interesting than real life, I thought. Even when with friends, I started to read and to dream away. And at night my parents turned off the electricity to prevent me reading until 3 am in the morning, while I had to get up for school at 6 am. Others might run away in music, in fashion, in religion, or in any hobby that becomes more serious than taking good care of yourself.
Is it necessary to run away? Is reality really too cruel to cope with? I’m now convinced that it’s not; not even for famous artists! Everyone can learn to feel secure and protected. Than you can lean how to cope with reality. And once you learned, you also realize that you owe it to yourself to take good care of yourself.
That’s what I was looking for. Adds a blog to my favorites.