Los Angeles Acting blog by David August: Die Trying

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Die Trying

Don't take life too seriously, no one survives it. And I'm serious. We all have a limited time here.

In our work, our characters may "die well" or "die badly" and in our imagination we probably prefer the heroic death, or the tragic it's-so-sad-they-never-got-to-do-thus-and-such (but really won't it be nice to live all those dreams before dying) death, or tell-so-and-so-I-loved-them (but really why didn't I tell them, after all what left is there to lose at the end) death. Whatever it is. In reality: how we live, the choices we make and the things we do are more important than the last instant.

Keep striving. The point is to keep acting. Not just in the continue to audition, book, work and repeat sense. Keep doing things. Ideally the right things in the right way, but maybe even better if we make an allowance that we'll make mistakes, that you're not perfect but that you keep attempting, keep pursuing, kept at "it" whatever it is. Keep breathing, keep putting yourself out there, into the world, keep following up and following through.

We don't have any more control over our own death than we did over our own birth. But everything in between is ours. And what we do from now until we are taken out of this world has our discretion in it, our choices, and it can have our dreams, our potential realized. When we get to the pearly gates, won't it be better to have continued with our best efforts until that very moment, to have died trying? Do yourself the favor: die trying. What else were you planning to do?