Proactively Pivoting

The Artist #21 / 2018 / Pasted paper collage / RCS

Proactively pivoting, you became an overnight success story, 30 years in the making. An instant sensation. How was it done? Magic potions, visionary notions, algorithms? From someone unknown to the person of the hour, day, year, who’s seen on every screen – handheld, portable, flat-screen, wall-sized. The paradigm shift made love to the zeitgeist, and both were deeply satisfied. A global sensation, and you’re ready for your close-up. Already there, living in the media’s glare. Only photographed with perfect hair. Humans become heightened versions of themselves around you – for better, for worse, glamorous, hilarious, disintegrating. You appear to take it all in stride. You no longer walk, you’re transported in sunglasses and a hoodie via black limousine to the corner store, or a secret location in Malibu. Journalists jot down every mundane observation. You’re asked where you vacation. How droll. Buttered rolls are a thing of the past. You were told there’d be croissants. All due to a book, a platform, a record-breaking tour, the rights to your life story sold to the movies totally groovy, a brilliant mind-reading partner, a sense of knowing it was your turn to speak up. Change the world? In your plans all along, or is it just how certain things unfurled. Your imperfections now looked upon as perfectly perfect. Once scorned ideas are elevated as you step into the elevator to your penthouse overlooking the inner harbor. Your every belief is inherently believable. Seen on the scene, then unseen. When you have a second to plan it, you disappear for a month and then reappear through a wall of smoke. Stepping away from the crowd goes unnoticed, and a dip in the ocean lets you breathe in the salty air as if doing it for the first time. Hiding in plain sight. In early evening, turning into a glowing being. How do you do it, is there a trick to it? It’ll all come out in your upcoming memoir, written by cats, clones, AI, real ghosts as writers. And effortlessly, eventually, you’ll reinvent yourself once again.