My guest this week is Scott Erickson, an artist, author, performance speaker, and creative curate who mixes autobiography, mythology, and aesthetics to create art and moments that speak to our deepest experiences.

He is the writer and performer of two one-man shows. Wrestling with his own professional burnout and clinical depression, “We Are Not Troubled Guests” is a performance story-telling piece in which he navigates the surprising gift of an existential crisis.

His current show, "Say Yes: A Liturgy of Not Giving Up On Yourself,” juxtaposes story-teaching, participation, humor, and image curation as Scott walks us through the very personal and universal conversation about the death of a dream and the overwhelming voice of Giving Up in our lives.

He is the co-author of Prayer: Forty Days of Practice and May It Be So, and the author of Honest Advent.

4:20 – Scott 101

• He’s a vocational artist, which means he’s an image-maker, an author and a performance artist.
• Scott spends a lot of time listening and thinking and chooses his projects carefully.

7:34 – Saying no

• Sometimes you have to say no to projects or work to focus on what’s really important.
• But some people don’t know what to do with more free time because they were so used to working all the time.

27:26 – Who are we?

• Every conversation ends up eventually hitting on, “Who are we? Why are we here?”
• The journey that we’re on is that we’re working for identity and then we work from identity.
• You know what happens when you make a lot of money and you’re still miserable? You spend that money on trying to medicate your misery.

35:39 – Live performances

• His show runs an hour and 45 minutes, which flies by.
• Scott asked himself: Can a performance change someone’s life, and how do you create that?

53:58 – What do you want to feel?

• If you don’t experience sorrow, you won’t experience the depth of joy.
• Scott uses a death practice to determine what’s important to him and what might regret.

1:19:21 – Get to know you

• Guilty pleasure? Tony’s chocolate
• What makes him laugh? TikTok video of cats

FEATURED QUOTES

I think our dreams are really about being the kind of person who can buy that thing, have that object, go on that vacation.

I spend a lot of time listening and thinking.

Every conversation ends up eventually hitting on, “Who are we? Why are we here?”

You know what happens when you make a lot of money and you’re still miserable? You spend that money on trying to medicate your misery.

Say yes to the gift of your incarnation.

CONNECT:

https://www.scottericksonart.com/

Thank you to our partner of the show!

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