Life and the Red Thread Plot

I am a rather big fan of the “who done it” Detective series “The Mentalist”. I remember watching it once on a flight from Europe to Germany and liking the clever twists in the shows writing. Upon purchasing the entire series on Amazon Video I began watching from Episode 1 Season 1, what is generally known as the “pilot” all the way through to the last Episode in Season 7.

The thing I didn’t realize when I watched it on the plane is that there all of these episodes were tied together by an overlying them, “Who is Red John?” Red John is the serial killer who had murdered the series’ main character Patrick Jane’s wife and daughter. I don’t recall a series that used this overlying hunt for the bad guy, throughout an entire detective series. I thought it was a pretty cool aspect.

There were other things that intrigued me about the series, but I want to concentrate on this double plot in my article today.

In Germany I learned about a term called “Der rote Faden” or The “Red Thread”, which is a theme that runs throughout a production that doesn’t really necessarily have to do with the story, but it unifies the production in some way to help people understand the story. It can be anything like a girl writing in the diary throughout the show as if it is her dream world, or such similar ideas.

Anyway, the point I want to make about it is that in life we too are working with this “Red Thread” too.

I believe one of life’s major decisions is to decide what that ‘red thread’ is going to be. It is this that is going to determine the trajectory of your life and guide you through life and give your life purpose and meaning.

No matter what thread you choose, things are going on in your daily existence that makes our lives challenging. Those are important things, like going shopping, going to church, mowing the lawn, going to events and parties and being involved with the daily activities of life. But those things are not the content of your existence. The content of your existence is the mark you make on the world you leave behind and that doesn’t have to be anything stupendous. But, life is going to be very difficult if you don’t know what your “Red Thread” is.

This “Red Thread” is a mission, an artistic mission that you work on to build over time. It can be anything from being a mother and housewife to being the CEO of a major corporation and the two are not a lot different.

As an artist, the art that you make is your work and it is your “Red Thread” and it is as important as any other pursuit. The pursuit of your “Red Thread” is essential to lifelong fulfillment. Your work is important.

Throughout life people talk about priorities. What is “most” important? Is family more important than career and money? Is your work more important than your personal life? What is the right way to live?

You hear all of the mantras. “God, Family, Work.” “Family, God, Work.” and other such “how to live life” sayings. But really, aren’t all such things like the parts of the same wheel? Isn’t it true that all of these things coexist in life with equal importance and that the daily task is to work on all of them simultaneously?

However you want to design your life I believe it is the work you do the “Red Thread” that holds your life together more than anything else and it is a decision that needs to be made.

Work. What is that really?

There are different types of work, hourly work where you perform some task for an employer not because you necessarily like it but because it pays the bills. As long as you understand what it is then your work does serve you.

But, I am talking about the type of work that is going to shape your life and be a large part of what you are about. It is the thing that when people think about you they automatically associate you with when they think of you.

Moving back to my home town I am surprised at how many people know me because of my singing. Being an opera singer to me is a normal activity because throughout my entire career most of the people I knew were opera singers. But, how many people did I meet in life that told me I was the first opera singer they had ever met. It happened constantly. Therefore, I would make an immediate impression on them and it set me apart quite easily from most of the people that folks tend to associate with in life.

Getting hired as an opera singer is not the easiest pursuit you can take in life. Making a career out of it is even more difficult. So, music, opera, theater and all of the literature that goes along with it is a pretty involved career choice. But, in fact, it is no more than any other career choice. What you do in life, is your life. Having that is a huge gift. Losing it is as much as a tragedy as losing a loved one or having a marriage end in divorce. It is a life changing event best not experienced.

I believe one of the things that people have to get clear about is that when they are looking for a lifelong partner, the work that your partner does is a huge part of who they are as a person. Take away their work and they are half a person and not the person you married or joined with. It is not fair to ask someone to choose between them and their work because they basically “are” their work and it is like asking them to give up their right arm for the sake of the left arm. We are meant to be “whole” beings, not a fragmented person who has pieces in them missing.

Another aspect of this “Red Thread” is the spiritual side. We are not all meant to do the same thing in life. In fact, there is only one ‘Jesus’, only one ‘Buddha’ only one ‘Mohammed’. Our work is a part of life’s woven cloth and without us doing it there would be a hole in the fabric.

The theater is a wonderful example of this. Everyone in a theater has a different function and everyone’s function is a vital part of a successful theater. When everyone does their work the theater is a successful enterprise. When you have some people not doing their work it falls apart and becomes chaos.

This is the way the world works too. The problem with the world isn’t that there isn’t enough work for people, it is that people don’t know what their work is so they flounder around like a fish out of water. Another problem is that some people are made wrong about pursuing some fields of work because of some misguided idea it isn’t going to “make them enough money.” You have creative people being forced into jobs that are not creative and killing their souls with the slow drip of dullness.

What is the “right thing to do?” My experience has taught me that staying true to your “one thing” your “Red Thread” is a divine responsibility above all others because it is that which you were sent here to do, for whatever reason ‘God’ has chosen you for.

So, it is important to know what your “Red Thread” is and to have that be your guide through your life’s work and all other things coexist with it. You were created to do that work by ‘God’, and to turn your back on it for any reason is like turning your back on the divine gift you were given.

It is important that you realize the same for others as well. What is happiness? It is doing what makes you happy. This is in harmony with everything else in your life and if other things don’t harmonize with it, then maybe they shouldn’t be a part of your life.

We all have the daily grind that is important. Family, God, your friends and causes are important too, but the core of what you do in life is what you were sent here to do and that is whatever you choose it to be.

Money and security are important in life. But working for money and security is empty unless you know what it is for. I believe that working for retirement is an empty goal. What is that really? It is saying that the main purpose of your life’s work is to not work anymore. It is to stop working so you can “live” life.

People talk all the time about security in retirement, but when you have been productive all of your life then the number one reason retirement is insecure is because you stop producing. Believe me, I get the teacher who has taught school for 30 years probably needs to retire and let some younger folks take over. There are obviously physical demands that age makes impossible to meet for certain types of work. But, the idea to stop your work is really the biggest problem with retired people.

All I know is that when I am not working on what my work was, that is preparing roles to sing in operas, rehearsing and performing, it feels like I am not doing the right thing. I’m sure athletes and other skill performers deal with this issue constantly. I’m telling you it is an extremely difficult thing to overcome.

That is why I can’t understand the hurry to stop working. Why stop working? It kills your life’s juice.

The search for the “Red Thread” is on. Find it, embrace it and never give up on it, because what you achieve in life doesn’t seem like much when you’ve achieved it, but when you lose it you realize that what you achieved was great and finding that again in life is not so easy.

The journey we take in life is that “Red Thread” and everything that happens along the way are stones in the path. Never let the stones stop you on your journey because that mission is your life’s blood and you are not you without it.