A fellow scout, Tony, and I got together for lunch today. He was telling me how he was feeling really down yesterday and for the first time in his life he went out and bought clothes to make himself feel better. (What’s that all about?…Must be a man thing.) I asked him if it worked. He said not really, but after a night’s sleep, he did feel totally fine again.
In his words, “It was one of my weak days.”
I knew what he was talking about. We all have days or situations where, for whatever reason, we’re ‘weak’. A cloud settles over us and things look bleak. Blame it on the moon, our biorythms or the bossanova for that matter–who knows? But whatever it is, we’re not doing our best thinking at those times and as a result we suffer. We fall prey to all kinds of negative thoughts and moods. And as long as we’re in the middle of this fog, we think it’s reality and the way things will always be.
This is something that models can easily fall prey to. As wonderful as modeling is, it can be just as difficult to mentally resist the pulls and pressures of the job.
I’ve certainly known that feeling as a model and once in a while it will still have its way with me. But I’ve come to recognize it for what it is–a temporary funk which will ride itself out.
I’m familiar enough by now with this state of mind that I can see it ambling towards me from afar. Other times it settles on me like a shroud out of nowhere. I realize that there’s probably little I can do to avoid it, but I can know in advance that it won’t last forever and is by no means an accurate reflection of reality.
I’ve developed a technique for dealing with this that I’ve found extremely helpful. And as with so many things, we have the ancient Greeks to thank.
I came upon this method when in high school, where at the time we were studying Homer’s Odyssey. If you remember anything about Greek mythology, you’ll remember that the hero, Odysseus, was making his long way home to Ithaca after the Trojan war. Talk about a road trip–the whole thing took him ten years and through many perilous ordeals.
One of those ordeals involved getting his ship and men safely through a strait, past the infamous Sirens on the nearby shore. For these Sirens were deadly; they were known to sailors everywhere for their beautiful and irresistible voices. They claimed in their song to have perfect hindsight and foresight and as such, anyone who listens to them will know all things past and future. But for the hapless captain who gives in to temptation, he will have no choice but to turn the ship to shore to follow that song– invariably destroying both ship and crew on the rocks.
On his journey homeward, Odysseus was coming upon that dangerous passage. He knew he had to get the boat and his men safely through it. But he also wanted to know firsthand what that most irresistible of sounds was like. He wanted to hear that siren song. So he devised an ingenious plan…
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