I had the idea for this one due to my friend Donovan and I kind of stumbling into a co-assistant director/writer position for an original local theater youth production about substance abuse called Attention Must Be Paid. We rearranged the entire thing and gave it a throughline, if you will, adding our own original works to fill in the gaps of the story we pieced together from the loose parts we had originally that were only related through basic concept. We wanted to give it a more human element and acknowledge why people feel the need to have a supplemental substance in life, and to dive into the philosophy behind it a bit deeper. Rain was the main metaphor we used, and the umbrella itself was a very symbolic part of the idea. Essentially this picture represents the idea that sometimes shielding yourself from life can have an inverse effect, blocking you out from much of the beauty, and how the fear of losing that protection is often the reason you need it in the first place. A truly abominable cycle to escape. The concept expands upon and helps to visualize the functional truth behind the phrase “The only thing to fear is fear itself.” Also I’d like to acknowledge that this isn’t a full explanation of my take on substance abuse, it would take much more nuance to get that across, it just so happens that’s the conversation the original metaphor came out of. In this form it’s a bit abstracted from the original concept and can apply to many different ailments of the human condition.
