For my second day on Let’s Paint TV John broadcast the show live from his back yard where we attempted to run on treadmills, paint, barbeque and play badminton all at the same time. Unfortunately, we were besieged by electrical problems. We didn’t have quite enough juice to get both treadmills going simultaneously for more than about 10 minutes. So for at least 20 minutes of the show John was just pretending to be walking on his treadmill. We each painted a Portobello mushroom before throwing it on the grill with the hotdogs and veggie kebabs. Once again, I barely got a word in edgewise while John’s effervescent chat filled all the empty airspace.
After the show we spoke with viewers and I told John about my theory that his message embodies Albert Ellis’ principle of Unconditional Self Acceptance (U.S.A.). Ellis claims that self-esteem is a myth and that because we are ultimately all fallible human beings (F.H.B.s) we better strive towards U.S.A. because we are bound to occasionally make mistakes and/or fail, despite our best efforts. John’s motto to ’embrace failare’ sums it up nicely. I sure needed my U.S.A. that day because when John and I took turns doing some hand-held camerawork to get close-ups of each other painting, exercising and barbecuing, I accidentally forgot to press the record button. Luckily John also practices Unconditional Other Acceptance!
See my paintings from this and other episodes of Let’s Paint TV.
