Cynicism is always going to try to get you
and it’s your job to navigate around that cynicism.
Because they’re like nipping dogs at your feet,
they’re not important, cynicism is valueless
in my book and I have no time for it.
I will be patient with it to a degree
and then I have no patience for it. Some parent
that doesn’t want their kid to play violin, okay,
and they’re antagonistic, you’ve gotta be an accountant,
you’ve gotta be an accountant. You go,
ok… Dad,
I love you, But…
if I become an accountant I’m becoming what you want me to be
and I have a good chance of having a not so happy life.
Even if I fail at being a violinist, at least I failed on my own terms
and I failed doing something I loved. So, you gotta let up on me dad,
or brother, or sister,
whoever that character is that has a counter-intention to you,
you have to get with them and get real and say
Look it’s my life, it’s not your life
and this is how I need to do it. Whether someone wants to be a baseball player,
but their parents want them to be a football player
it doesn’t even matter if it’s the wrong sport,
you see, it’s not your sport!
You know, and I’ve watched people to this my whole
life I’ve watched them…
Wow! You got to be a professional football player
for six months, why didn’t that work out?
Well cause I never liked it, I wanted to be a baseball player.
Well what… what happened?
Well, my dad wanted me to become a football player
and I was really going on his wishes. So if you had to redo history,
you’d say, Would I have told dad at that time,
Look… I’m just enjoying this more than that,
can you let up on me? There’s always these interesting increments
of how you give yourself permission
and navigate around people that are counter your intentions.
You can’t forget that life is an art. That’s why Oprah and I connected immediately
because, you know, we did a whole episode one time
on enlightening people that didn’t have money
on how they can live artfully. I said,
very easy! I said, can the average fellow go to Walmart
and afford a tray, yes it might be three dollars,
can you afford a cup instead of a paper cup,
might be a dollar, it’s fine,
now can you put your favorite coffee in that cup?
Can you… can you go to a market
or something and get a nice blueberry muffin,
can you make that look pretty, put a flower on that tray?
Now can you go give it to your husband or your wife?
They’ll think that they’re at the Four Seasons,
getting room service, and you have minimal money.
It’s how you approach it, you know,
it’s the art of life. If you wanna look a certain way,
it doesn’t take money. I remember,
I had a couple of friends that were in a bind,
they needed a suit for a wedding
they didn’t have one. I said,
let’s go to Walmart, I said I can get you a suit for 46$,
it’s gonna look great on you. And it did,
because the designer of the Walmart thing, had a better tailoring
than some of the top designers! and everybody complimented him at the wedding,
Yeah! You look great,
you look great! Never told ‘em
it was from Walmart 46$, but he upstaged everybody
with all their designer suits. I did that with my sisters once,
I wasn’t used to buying them expensive clothes, I went to Walmart and bought
a cocktail dress for one sister and a,
kind of, other type of cocktail wear.
They wore them out! They loved them so much!
And I never told them how much they cost,
19$ each! And I never told them where I got it from.
Cause I did not want to influence them, but I wanted to show, that
you can experience life if you’re clever with money
and still be as artful. There’s a joy of creating and that’s free.
Whether you write, or play music,
or act, that’s free,
the joy, and you can splurge on that joy,
everybody can, you just have to give yourself permission.