June 20, 2011

Louis CK on being a dad-- the hidden piece of his happiness



It's no secret I love Louis CK.  He's funny but insightful in a way only comics can be. 

And certainly sacrificing yourself, subsuming your own "dreams" and focusing on the dreams of your children is a thesis entirely consistent with this blog.

So I write this with that love declared upfront.

Here's the missing piece of his PSA about being a father.

A while after his leg fell asleep on the toilet, and before he had that epiphany to flush down his own personal dreams and devote himself to his kids...he had a divorce and moved out.

I have no doubt he is a great father.  But-- and this is a big but-- it is much easier to go all in with parenting when the courts obligate you to give the kids to someone else every night.  Don't yell at me, divorced parents, I'm not criticizing you, I realize you have other burdens. But if he hadn't had the divorce, I doubt he would have made this PSA.

So this isn't a judgment on him at all.  Maybe he's able to focus so well on his kids because there's no reason to try and steal moments away.  He knows he will have a blocks of time that are free of the greatest killer of creative work: interruptions.

And maybe modern married creative couples need to create a system or regular "breaks," I have no idea.  What I do know is that it is much easier to be two kinds of people at different times, then be two kinds of people at the same time.





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