Words of wisdom from the guy who directed Ace Ventura

I’ve been brooding lately – a dangerous past time, I know. Sometimes I see my future as a bright, exciting time full of potential. But when I’m feeling more pessimistic I see my future as a dull grind, where it takes years and years to accomplish just one of my goals. That’s what I’ve been thinking about lately, brooding on the supposed difficulties of my life.

It’s a danger, I think, of our time - where everything comes so quickly and easily - that it feels like our life goals should be accomplished with as much ease and simplicity. But life doesn’t work that way. Most of the time I appreciate the slow pace, the ability to appreciate life while I have it... but when I don’t, I brood.

I guess patience isn’t a virtue I have; I’m going to have to work at that a little more.

Today, I went to a Conference on World Affairs session called “How to Make a Bad Movie.” I almost didn’t go because it sounds kind of depressing, but it was better than working, so I decided to go for it anyways. I could not have been more surprised by the quality of the panel. It had an Oscar-winning special effects master, a former SNL star, a screenplay writer, and the guy who directed Ace Ventura and Liar Liar, among other films. I guess technically these people have all been involved in projects that resulted in bad movies, but what they talked about wasn’t how to make a bad movie, the message they really focused on was what it meant to be an artist. The Ace Ventura guy especially said that no matter what other people think of your work, so long as what you are producing comes from your heart it’s a quality piece of art. He spoke of vision, being true to yourself, and he insisted that the only “bad” art is art that was never made because the artist was too afraid to try.

I never expected such optimism and idealism from a man who became (in)famous for making Jim Carrey talk out of his butt. Maybe because the message came from so unexpected a source that it affected me so much. But instantly I was lifted out of my funk. I feel like I’ve balked at some many things in my life because I was afraid that I would fail at them, but it’s better to try and fail than to have never tried at all.