As we drove to the cottage the other day a Prince song came on and my wife commented that it is such a shame that so many of the artists waste their talent to drugs and overdose. Intuition tells her she is right, but I don't think this is the case - at least not always the case - especially for many of the most talented and creative of the artists.
While it is likely a combination of factors including getting put up on a pedestal and handed everything for free, I also think that there is a personality factor involved too. For example, Prince was an incredibly talented and dedicated musician who when in front of an audience, gave it his all. I had the fortune to see him in concert and he played seven encores and the show went for close to 4 hours. It was incredible.
This dedication to learning instruments, fine-tuning a voice or becoming a highly skilled at anything is a type of addiction in itself. Dedication means to give oneself to a purpose and has its roots in religion and gods -not unlike addiction, which is to devote and sacrifice oneself to something. The personality type for being dedicated to learning a skill, is likely not too dissimilar to from that of a drug addict - with many exhibiting similar traits, especially when something gets between them and their object of desire - be it new skill or next hit.
Then there is the personality of the creative that thinks outside of the average and often finds itself spending a lot of time alone, a lot of time alone with a racing mind. Often these artists have troubled pasts with broken relationships that affected and influenced them throughout their lives, but genetics is genetics and nature and nurture both play a role in who we become. A bad childhood focused into an instrument, but the genes of the parents still course through the veins, as do the memories and feelings of those days.
What I posited to my wife is that while people blame the drugs, perhaps it is the character of the artist that pushes them into the cycle, maybe to find escape from the past or perhaps to numb the mind to stop it racing - and with fame and fortune comes the endless supply of opportunity and the growing number of people looking to please and take advantage, coupled with the disconnection from people who truly care.
An addictive personality that is able to control focus on what is desired and who is sensitive with a broad imagination, a history of childhood trauma of some kind and a increasingly strange social circle that amplifies an ego while disconnecting from reality. It is a recipe for substance abuse - the skill to dedicate, the want to avoid and open availability of whatever is wanted - sex, drugs and rock and roll.
Perhaps what gives them the strength to be brilliant in one set of conditions, is their Achilles heel under another set. Their personality when young and learning gave them the energy to become brilliant, but as their brilliance shone, it opened new doors into worlds where their personality was no longer working toward a positive result. Not all skills are suitable for all environments and not all focus will be given to a worthy target.
As I said to my wife, we find it difficult as average people to find balance between work and recreation, social and family life. Perhaps this imbalance is magnified to extremes in the case of talent and trauma, creativity and focus. While we want the best of what they offer the world, finding balance must be difficult for them and we don't consider their lack of support and the relationships they don't have, that we use to tether us to reality.
We only want their upside and assume because it is so high, their downside is not that bad - when it could be a counterpoint to the up, a polarized extreme that they swing between like they have a split personality of Jekyll and Hyde - and they share them simultaneously. And they are left spinning, public points of brilliant light that throws very deep shadows for when they are alone. Perhaps if they found their center, they would lose the edge we adore, so they look to counteract the lows by raising their floor anyway they can.
While we feel we do, we can't know what runs through the mind of anyone else on this earth and we can't put ourselves in anyone else's shoes. We can admire and envy their skills and dream of being in their position, but we do not imagine their nightmares. We get high on what they provide and they get high to keep the supply flowing. We enable each other and we only want the best of them, so they are forced to hide their worst.
Will we ever get enough of them? Will we ever take too much of them? Is it them who have the problem, or is it us?
Taraz
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