Saving Face Has No Place in Art Making

The dangers of cutting deals that undermine our desires

I wish I could tell you I'm familiar with Brad Paisley's work, and that's how I found the below quote rather than telling you the truth.

"When you save face, but your heart breaks, well, you've cut the wrong deal!"

The truth is I play a lot of Disney music in my car for my daughter, and one of her favorite tracks is what she calls "Pistachio Ice Cream!" 

She refers to it this way because in "Cars 2," Mater (as in Tow-Mater without the Tow) screams, "Pistachiooooooo Ice Cream!" 

Mater shrieks like this when he ate a good chunk of Wasabi, thinking it was Pistachio Ice Cream, and almost oiled his car pants. Spoilers, much?

The song's real name is "Collision of Worlds," sung by Robbie Williams and Brad Paisley.

But that's not the song I'm referring to. 

The one I'm talking about is two tracks later when Paisley comes back on to sing "Nobody's Fool."

"When you save face, but your heart breaks, well, you've cut the wrong deal!"

The song is excellent, like everything Paisley does--based on my knowledge of his Disney work. But I especially LOVE that line because it is how we are all hardwired to live our lives. We would rather spend our entire lives stepping on eggshells than risk eggs on our faces.

We stay in the job, in the relationship, in the neighborhood because we don't want to risk what our neighbors will think of us. 

In the meantime, we are unhappy because we can't be who we really want to be and the associated risks that come with it.

Does your heart ache? You might be saving face with others but not with yourself.