Art Burshy was invited by his agent to have dinner with art collectors; asking Art to join as it would be good to get some attention and art works sold. In a moment of weakness Art had accepted. But when entering the restaurant and seeing the table with business people he had taken a deep breath and told himself to make the best of it. Certainly, also an artist needs to have bread on the table, and Art had not sold too much recently.
Now, Art can be quite entertaining - if he wants to - and in his early days he would have loved to play the entertainer and explain people all the ínteresting' elements, get their admiration and making other people intelligent. But over the years he found it harder to play these games, and also he felt it less rewarding to have people voicing their admiration about trivial elements of life and art.
This evening again people started asking him very basic questions and complimenting him. And Art politely answered and played the game of explain-the-basics-of-art-to-ignorant-dumbos. He even got carried away, heard himself talk bullshit, and getting carried away by his ego... so as soon as he observed his own behavior he snapped out of it. Although it is tempting to roll yourself in such pool of self-justification and admiration, it is from an intellectual point of view sooo boring.
He then started at the table paying attention to the people, trying to remember their names, listening to their stories, ignoring the bullshit cold talk and trying to ask more interesting questions (or questions that are less safe and standard):
- why the hell did your parents give you that name
- why did you think 2 children are enough
- what makes your wife stay with you
- what is the dream you know you will never realise
- what is your worst fear; what are you most afraid to lose
- what terrible kids behaviour do you still demonstrate when under pressure
- what is the most terrible sin you have ever committed...really...
Sure, at the start people would basically ignore some of the questions or avoid giving a real answer, but after some wine they actually really replied to the questions, which gave a funny and interesting flavor to the conversation.
The evening was underway for wquite some time and actuyally things looked pretty well, and his agent gave Art a satisfied look. Then one guy next to him asked what Art really thought of the evening...
His agent gave him a begging look like "do-not-ruin-the-evening-by-being-too-honest"
Art was silent for a moment, many things went through his head, and what type of things he should or could answer.
Politely:
- well, thank you for asking, it is so nice to be surrounded by such interested and interesting friends
- so great to have the opportunity to share views with the you chaps
But these sentences gave him a sense of repulsion.
Maybe a bit less polite:
- well, not to worry about me, sometimes its good to take some time for such events
But while still thinking about it Art heard himself say out loud:
- well, I am doing my best to make the conversation interesting, but that's not easy with such ignorant and arrogant stiff penguins like you....
This is where his agent's jaw had dropped on the table before trying to save the conversation.
But the damage had been done and heavily offended the 'old chaps' left the restaurant with faces of disgust.
Art Burshy looked with an innocent frown at his agent, and his agent gave him a terrible look...
And Art could only mumble...: "Well, they might not like it...but I am pretty sure I was right...."
Well, in a way this is probably not the worst thing ever happening at dinner tables, and I just guess that for an artist like Art it is difficult to find a balance between pleasing people and remaining true to yourself....
