Boundaries

Boundaries.

Lorne Michaels the creator of Saturday Night Live
 was asked in an interview by Alec Baldwin why he chose to stay on network tv and not make the leap to the less restrictive platform of cable? Lorne replied, “There’s no creativity without boundaries.”

The boundaries of network standards had provided a parameter for his creativity. Now whether you are like me or not, and prefer the old school SNL, Michaels has been creating for over forty years within the boundaries of an ever changing network. 

This got me to thinking about the other built in boundaries we have in our lives. Rules, regulations, and even the Ten Commandments are all ways to check our actions, and allow us to function in a manner that brings about civility. 

Unfortunately, these boundaries seem to be lacking in many other areas of daily living. As a result we seem to have become coarser in our talk, have thrown civil discourse out the window, and have very little regard for the truth anymore. 

Boundaries shouldn’t be regarded as barriers to living our best and most creative life, rather they help to keep things in check. When anything goes, than often times we are left in the wake of another’s destructiveness. 

I feel sometimes for this younger generation who we allowed not to be constrained by the boundaries of our youth. In our attempts to shelter them from the consequences of their actions we created a world without a roadmap to help guide them. Now I’ll be the first to say, thanks to the influence of my husband, veering off that map every now and then does have its benefits. 

However, when you can do whatever you want regardless, it’s often times hard to know what to do. Choosing to allow boundaries in your life helps you to hone in on creating a more satisfying life, because it allows you enough security to do so. 

Of course, this is only my humble opinion, but I do think it might be worth considering.