Have you seen Ellen’s Netflix special Relatable? Yep, I watched it. Yep, I enjoyed it. But I still don’t miss watching her show every afternoon.
Now, it probably doesn’t take much guessing to figure out that I don’t agree with a lot of what Ellen stands for but then I’m confident that she would say the same of me. However, as I watched Relatable, it was not her references to the many things that I don’t agree with that stood out to me. She got the audience laughing as she made fun of this or that. They cheered as she offered her support of those who are vegan and as she shared about her trip to Rwanda to see the starting reality of the 60th birthday present from Portia. I really don’t think that every person in that audience identifies as gay. I’ll bet that their general political opinions are also wide and varied and I’m pretty sure it’s possible to say “I love Ellen and I love Trump” in the same sentence. (I just did.) What stood out to me as I watched her stand-up special was her creativity and her love for her fans. If you are doing something great with your life and you can’t say that you love and are grateful for the people who are giving you your success, then I’d call that a failure.
Ellen wrote her presentation (perhaps with a little help from screenplay writers): an entire hour about how relatable her life still is, despite her fame. She added a bunch of hilarity to it all - how she kept a straight face while the audience rolled with laughter I have no idea. (Acting is not my forte.) But the way she told her story of how she went from living in a flea-infested basement apartment to the fame that she now enjoys was creative enough in and of itself, let alone the creativity she used when she was actually living it.
That girl is creative and passionate about what she does and is as generous as they come.
I’ve seen many a YouTube video from her shows but until last year I had never seen a show from start to finish. Just from her YouTube videos I became a fan of Jeannie, discovered the game 5 Second Rule (and gave it as Christmas presents to every household in my family), and downloaded the app Heads Up!. Last year when I was unemployed and nearing the end of my tornado-of-an-experience with mental illness, watching her show gave me something to laugh at for an hour every afternoon (quite the feat when you’re talking major depression and a severe anxiety disorder). Then a new job came with a new schedule and more than a year later I just remembered that I watched her show every day for a few weeks last year.
Evidently, I have been alive and kicking and really enjoying and loving life. My knack for creativity found a home in my preschool classroom and because of that I had almost convinced myself that I didn’t really need outlets for creative writing or even creating music. But my friend who directed A Christmas Carol asked me to be a part of the show and I eventually said “Yes” (actually, I said “I’ll try to stay” because, well, anxiety), then the musicians “clicked” really well and had so much fun together creating music. Once that was over I finally decided to just go for it and create a new blog to explore this idea of writing about anxiety and, before Christmas Day arrived, I already had half a dozen drafts behind the scenes that were done and ready to go. It seemed creativity was suddenly bursting at the seams of my brain and I had finally allowed myself the opportunity of these creative outlets.
So what do Ellen and I have in common? Apparently, a lot more than I thought.
