Help/Held

The other day in my journal I was writing about the connection between being helped and held (literally and figuratively) and got excited about the visual relationship between the words. I was sure if I went down an etymological trail there’d be a root word connection, but unfortunately from a quick look (very quick, so maybe it exists in more granular dissection than I was willing to do) it’s just not there. I suppose this makes sense in terms of their different parts of speech and tense, but a girl can dream.

Still, as I begin the new semester, and have had inspiring chats with my new cohort of students about their artistic practices and projects, I am enjoying the connection between the words. To help someone, I believe, is to hold them, with open, ungripping palms. It is to hold space, to hold ideas, to hold identity, and sometimes to hold accountable. When I think about a life of service - of help - I think of the ways in which I might hold.

It is also to hold in mind. This has recently created great joy in the space between my teaching life and my arts-industry-life. Years ago, when I started doing casting advocacy work and found myself getting asked for recommendations of both actors and other industry professionals from under-represented communities, I created my favorite thing: a spreadsheet.

(Because at 43, as names are already slipping away, to hold someone in mind frankly requires an external memory device like a database…)

Though the intent behind this resource was to give acting/directing/stage management/etc. recommendations, thanks to Playwrights Horizons Theater School’s amazing mentorship program, now I use it to connect students with professional mentors - and I don’t think I could get anyone a better gig than being a mentor: a holder, a helper.

As we head into autumnal renewal and harvest, may you be held and may you hold, my you be helped and may you help. May we all see the relationship between the two.