Friday Inspiration

I love podcasts. They are great for stories and pop culture. I spend most of my time with people who only speak Spanish and who know little about my culture (proud southern African-American, here) so podcasts are also a way for me to connect to familiar voices and sentiments; they are a slice of home. So, I get a lot of inspiration from podcasts. And today's inspiration comes from one of my favorites, Denzel Washington is the Greatest Actor of All Time Period. This lovely little gem is hosted by W. Kamau Bell and Kevin Avery, two great comedians and Denzel Washington fans. While this podcast bases itself in exploration of Denzel Washington's movies and acting chops, it finds a way to explore race, art, and politics through this lens. I love this podcast because it brings in voices from Hollywood that are shaping movies and media. I also love this podcast because Bell's show Totally Biased was a favorite, and when it went away I felt like something was truly missing in my media consumption.

Recently the guys had the honor of hosting the legendary Spike Lee on the podcast. While Lee has been a controversial figure, no one can deny his prowess in the world of film. I remember very well the first Spike Lee joint I saw, Do the Right Thing. The colors were amazing and I won't soon forget the terrible fall of Radio Raheem. It was a slice of black life laid out on the screen for all to see.

Lee was on the podcast to promote his new film Chi-Raq, but to also talk all things Denzel, as he has worked with the actor on several projects. As to be expected, the conversation led to Malcolm X, which was a defining role in Washington's career. I won't go into details about the conversation, but you can check it out here.

At some point Lee began to talk about Washington's preparation for the role. And he said the following, which is the point of today's inspiration:

If your vessel ain't right...

 Now anyone who has been to a black church or a southern church (I can't speak for others, because I don't have experience.) know that this statement doesn't need to be finished, because we all know what this means. It means that if you have not done the work, how can you expect the reward. So often we want to lean on talent or the fact that "we know someone" to get to where we want to be, but if we have not prepared ourselves to receive opportunity, it means nothing. Imagine someone you know offers you your dream job, but you don't have all the skills needed to accept. Or someone offers you a gig to perform, but your talent only gets you through the first 10 minutes of the set. At some point preparation has to kick in. At some point the work has to be done. For myself, I am working on discipline, on preparing my vessel. I have started working in the mornings with the book The Practice of Poetry to do just that, practice. And with each new day and with each new exercise, I meet new challenges that I don't want to face. But I do the work, and I do it everyday, and each day my instrument becomes more prepared, stronger. I want my vessel to be right to write my novel, my book of poems, that award-winning essay, or to simply be able to sit down at this blog and say something worth saying. 

What do you do to make sure your vessel is right?