At a recent discussion with a Eugene audience, a playwright was asked what he found most difficult with respect to his work. “Letting go,” he answered. Those who create performance pieces must leave them for others to interpret. They must learn to “let go” of their play, song, opera or symphonic opus. Those who stage the piece may have a concept that differs from theirs.
Similarly, parents need to accept their children will one day pursue independent lives. They will go their own way, regardless of what their elders prefer.
Parents with children, playwrights with producers, husbands with wives, or me with you, we’re all best served by accepting what is not ours to control. We avoid suffering by “letting go,” by allowing others the same freedom of thought and action we seek for ourselves.
