Life is Art.
Life is Heart.
(Welcome Back, Hermie!)
I was a fun, funny, whacky, creative kid.
Until “Hermie’s Hot Dog Stand,” that is.
“Hermie’s Hot Dog Stand” was a short story I wrote in Miss Lawson’s 8th grade English class.
In this adolescent opus of fun fiction, our hero, Hermie, is the owner of a world-renowned hot dog stand. People from everywhere flock to Hermie’s in order to partake of the delicious delicacy found only here: Hermie’s hot dogs, of course.
Unfortunately, one day Hermie was robbed at gunpoint.
The twist?
The robber did not want the money.
No, he wanted… the hot dogs.
(They were world-famous, after all.)
The coup d’gras of this fabulous work of wit and brilliance, this as-of-yet undiscovered masterpiece, was my favorite line:
“Hand over the wieners and no one gets hurt!”
Oh, was I proud of my hilariousness!
(Surprisingly, Miss Lawson was not impressed.)
Bye, bye, Warped, Quirky Humor!!
Bye, bye, Creativity!
Hello, Beige.
Like most doctors, I come from a very cerebral family.
Brain power is “The Force.”
The heart?
Forget it.
Emotions and sentiment are frivolous.
Unnecessary.
And frowned upon.
Thus, I did what any reasonable person who doesn’t want to get “voted off the island” does:
I shut down my heart.
I shut down my emotions.
I ditched my heart for my head.
Bye, bye, Emotions!
Bye, bye, Heart!
Hello, Beige.
And so I progressed—and I excelled.
I mastered the “should’s”– and the “shouldn’t’s.”
I became entrenched in my logical left brain—which, of course, was essential for the practice of medicine.
I dimmed down.
I dulled down.
Yeah, I was Beige.
But I was successful.
Until the age of fifty– when I was torpedoed by the terrible “Triple Threat:”
Midlife, Menopause… and Divorce.
I was broken wide open.
My left brain was dazed.
Dumbfounded.
Dumb.
And Dumber.
Sadly, Dim, Dull, and Beige weren’t cutting it in this new world order.
I was completely broken… and needing way more than a left cerebral cortex in order to heal.
The brilliant Carrie Fisher said, “Take your broken heart and make it into art.”
Heart?
Art?
(Both my heart and my art had been long-entombed,
Buried in Beige.)
Clearly, it was time to excavate.
Thus, forty years post- Hermie and his hot dog stand I woke up to the realization that I had abandoned essential parts of Me, parts I’d now need to reclaim so I could become whole once again.
I needed my heart back.
I needed my creativity back.
I needed to make art.
Come back, Creativity!
Come back, Heart!
Come back, Hermie!
I miss you!
I need you!
I’m ready to go full-spectrum.
Bye, bye, Beige!
Welcome back, Hermie.
(Sorry about the wieners…)