Short and Long Term Solutions

It was announced this week that Prospect Park will cut the number of new release soap episodes to 4 each week--two One Life to Lives, two All My Childrens--apparently more in line with viewing habits--which will mean less production and, therefore, less work for many of the people in Stamford with me. It has come, as you might imagine, as a huge shock to many. Our "soap camp" has, in just a few months, become a real way of life, similar enough to TV soap production of years past to make people who were part of that believe it would be a similarly long-term gig. And it may yet be.

But the events of the week have brought me back to what one of my brothers reminded me over and over during my job search. As I looked for what would be the "perfect fit," he would tell me not to look for something long-term, life-consuming, like the soap work I had had for years, but to look for a job. Just a job. And maybe just a "good for right now" job. Fifteen to twenty year jobs like the one I had just finished didn't exist any more, he said, so to look for them would just be a disappointment. (Okay, I'll admit I'm embellishing what he said, but the message was the same). And over the course of a year, I thought of his advice quite often.
 
So now, here we are, more of us than you'd think who are veterans of those jobs that were more than jobs, reminded that perhaps my brother is right. Things change--for better and for worse (and, as recent TV show cancellations demonstrate, very, very quickly in the entertainment arena). And we are really just extended freelancers on a gig that may turn long-term, or that may just be a gig.
 
The thing is, while it might not turn out to be a long term solution to the missing soap production in our lives, it is absolutely a short term solution to bill paying day and our desire to tell stories and our need to be in a place where our good work is appreciated. And, as my brother still reminds me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with short term solutions. They may become long term, or they may be steps to the next short term. Either way, they are, by definition, solving the "now."
 
And that's all good.