ELENA'S CREATIVE UPRISING - 2025 No. 03

A Bold Blend of Creativity, Wellness, and Activism

Elena Greco

Apr 02, 2025

Photo by Gerper on 123RF

In this issue:

Introduction: The Heroes We Need

UNITY and COMMUNITY
* Elena's Creative Community

CREATIVE CORNER
* Behind the Scenes - #24 - I'm Still Here
* Substack Made Easy - Tip #01

WELLNESS
* Life in Balance

CREATIVE ACTIVISM
* In Teaching and Advising: Writers Guild of Great Britain, Anne Handley, Authors Guild
* In Writing: Clarissa Pinkola Estés
* In Music: Yo-Yo Ma, Craig Pomranz
* In Public Speaking: Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
* In Service: Pete Buttigieg
* In Graphic Design: Barbara Taylor
* In Comedy: Stephen Colbert

ELENA'S ENTERTAINMENT
Unlikely Heroes

QUOTE
Clarissa Pinkola Estés

March 30, 2025

The only difference between a hero and the villain
is that the villain chooses to use that power
in a way that is selfish and hurts other people.
~ Chadwick Boseman

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why a certain group of people intensely revere a certain highly flawed character—especially when this person seems to go against all typically admired human qualities. I’ve come to the conclusion that these people needed a hero, and they couldn’t find one.

They needed someone who was close enough to the person they perceived themselves to be, but managed to rise above the limitations they perceived they possessed or endured, someone who would taunt or punish those who made them feel inferior, someone who would (pretend to) accept them and understand, someone all powerful. They needed a savior and they needed someone like themselves to look up to. They needed a hero.

It seems that these people view the individuals most of us would tend to admire for their positive attributes as “elite,” a term that—they’ve been taught through rigorous propaganda—represents their “oppressors.” They see those “elite” as better educated and more intelligent than they are, or born into better circumstances than they were, and they feel inferior to them. And they hate them for that. So it gives them great pleasure to venerate someone they falsely believe is like them, someone who disparages and punishes the “elite,” someone whose inflammatory, crude language and destructive actions give vent to their own anger.

It’s easy to hate someone who possesses something we believe we can never have or who makes us feel inferior, someone who by their “difference” from us is an easy target. And it’s easy to admire someone who publicly makes those people suffer—playing the adult version of the schoolyard bully (a hero of sorts, albeit a negative one) who protects them, if only because they’re useful to him.

Although most studies about the nature of heroism have examined the positive and uplifting traits of heroes, I believe there’s also a different kind of hero, and that is perhaps the sort of hero that the group of people I mentioned have chosen: villain as hero.

That’s what led me to think about heroes: who they are, and aren’t, and why and whether we need them....
(Hint: We do.) Please do continue to read by clicking HERE: The Heroes We Need.
Seriously, click to read the rest of the article....

I wrote more about bringing heroism into our lives in my recent book (yes, this manual will help you be a hero!):

Most of us seldom utilize our full potential except in extraordinary circumstances. We call someone who pulls another person from a burning building a hero. They might not previously have thought of themselves as someone who could pull another person from a burning building, but that quality resided in them all along, didn’t it? It didn’t come from nowhere. The emergency called forth something in them that was always there, something that they didn’t see in themselves until circumstances so urgently required that they access it, that they stepped over their usual self-limiting thoughts and accessed their inherent ability. In that moment, they embodied the greatness that already existed in them.

Let’s not require a burning building in order to manifest our potential, all right? Instead, let’s look at the possibility that we can rise to our current circumstances in a way that we haven’t previously seen ourselves as capable of doing, and that we can do that regularly, so that living heroically becomes a habit. – from Elena Greco’s Abracadabra!

UNITY and COMMUNITY

Strength in Unity, Support in Community

Elena's Creative Community

ELENA'S CREATIVE COMMUNITY fosters real community to helps us stay strong and focused! This transformative online group is designed to provide meaningful connection with a like-minded community and support your inner exploration, personal empowerment, creativity, and productivity.

We have two free one-hour online multi-genre Work-Together sessions each month on the first and third Saturdays at 2:00 pm US Eastern (New York).
For the month of April, they'll be on April 5 and April 19.
If you're interested in attending any of the work-togethers, drop me your name and email address so that you'll always receive the video link in the future a day or so before the work-together. You only have to let me know once.

Things you might work on in these multi-genre work-togethers: a) writing the next chapter of your book; b) learning your song lyrics; c) generating and sketching ideas for your next art installation; d) preparing a monologue for your audition; e) creating a plan for marketing the book you wrote; f) doing research and organization for your next op-ed; and so on. Many people find that working within the intentional group space is supportive and highly productive. Try it and see! If you want to try out the Work-Togethers, just Reply to this Newsletter. There's no obligation, so what have you got to lose?

Substack Made Easy

Substack is where it's happening! If you haven't at least dipped a toe into Substack yet, I really recommend that you do. It's currently the best resource for: 1) use as a Facebook replacement (yes, really!); 2) sharing creative writing (in place of Medium or blogs); 3) other creative sharing (music, art, poetry, cooking...); 4) podcasting; 5) reading or listening to your favorite people, whether political, creative or other; and 6) getting important news and commentary from intelligent perspectives (as a Twitter replacement, along with Bluesky).

It's also a wonderful place to create and enjoy community! Once you sign up, you'll soon find many like-minded souls around the country and beyond in a safe place for sharing. And yes, due to the way it's set up, Substack offers safety, in a way that Facebook and Twitter definitely do not. For example, you have total control of who Follows you and Comments on your posts, and Substack makes it easy to take action on those things. It also has a friendly, comfortable and supportive feel to it that I haven't found in any other online experience.

Adam Kinzinger (on Substack): "My favorite thing is that it doesn’t feel like news or even politics really, it feels like a community, and I mean that. It really is a new phenomenon, but people are looking for connection, friends, or most importantly, civil debate. I have seen so many of you in the comments having professional debates and acting respectful, and when you disagree with me the disagreement is the same. Honestly it feels like Democracy."

Because I do think it's an important place to be in this difficult time, and because quite a few people I've mentioned this to say something like, "it's too complicated," "I don't understand how it works," and so on, I've decided to make it easy to jump in by offering a simple, plain-English "how to" or tip each month for those who haven't taken the plunge yet. And if you prefer to get your instructions from the source, Substack itself provides lots of help. But maybe my tips are a little more user-friendly? Here's hoping. I'll start at the beginning....

SUBSTACK TIP #01: The first thing you need to do in order to take advantage of any of the things I mentioned above is to create an account for yourself. Creating the account is just the starting point. And please note that an account is not a Substack newsletter or publication; that's something you'll need to set up after you create your account if you want to share your own creative work. Regardless, if you want to see the posts of a group of posters or publications of your choosing, and perhaps to Like or Comment on their posts as we did on Facebook, you'll need an account.

1. Go to Substack and click on Create Account.
2. Choose a few topics of interest, if you like, to get your Inbox started; hit Continue.
3. Unselect their suggested newsletters. You don't want to subscribe to anything yet.
4. Fill in the required information.

This is what your account will look like:

Your name will be at the top. Underneath it will be the name of your Newsletter if and when you have one (more on that later), along with any links you've provided, such as your website. Below that is the description you supplied when you created your account.

Now, when others on Substack see a post of yours, they can rest their cursor on your name and instantly see all of that, which will give them the information they need to decide whether to Follow you. If they do choose to Follow you, that means that they would then see your subsequent posts in their Activity feed, giving you effortless exposure. Now you're all set to begin!

CREATIVE CORNER

All things related to creativity and the creative arts

Behind the Scenes

A peek behind the curtain of self-producing an album
and other tales

BEHIND THE SCENES (click to read) is a peek behind the curtain of self-producing an album. The stories and information are relevant to almost any music production, whether recording or performing. Subscribe—it's free!)

This month's BTS post is a little different from my usual (it's one of the "other tales"). Instead of talking about the logistics, tech, and musical challenges required to produce an album, I talk about my own recent struggles which led me unexpectedly to a new career (and to saying goodbye, reluctantly, to my old one), and which ultimately led to the recording of this album. Yes, it's long, but this is what I've lived through the past eight years. Read all about it HERE: Behind the Scenes – #24 - I'm Still Here.

Note: I have a belief that no one ever clicks on my links; here's hoping you'll make me wrong ... go ahead and CLICK Behind the Scenes – #24 - I'm Still Here ... it won't hurt a bit!

WELLNESS

All things related to health, healing, and transformation

Life in Balance

A series exploring health: What it really is, how to get it and how to maintain it

We're living in a time when it's essential, in the US especially, that we know how to support our own health, no matter the circumstances. I've studied and researched nutrition, healing and holistic medicine for 50 years. It's a passion of mine. I integrate the best of all worlds in the strategy for health I've developed in all those years, and I feel compelled to share it at this point, at a time when our country needs knowledgeable, forward-thinking people in the realm of health who are uninfluenced by Big Pharma, monetary gain or pressure. I'll be picking up on this series again next month. If you haven't read the first segments, now's a good time to do that! Start at the beginning by learning a little about my background in health-related practices and studies, and the important question: What Is Health? - by Elena Greco.

Beauty

Images above are Central Park at West 93rd St, NYC - ©Elena Greco

It's that time! If you've never stood among the cherry blossoms ... it's a sensual and otherworldly experience. See when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom in your area.
New York City - When To See NYC Cherry Blossoms: Check Out These Trackers
Washington DC - Cherry Blossom Peak Bloom Forecasts
When and where to see the best cherry blossoms in the U.S.

CREATIVE ACTIVISM

Creative Activism in Writing:
Clarissa Pinkola Estés - We Were Made for These Times
This is an excerpt from an essay written by the divine Clarissa Pinkola Estés; the original title is "Letter To A Young Activist During Troubled Times: Do Not Lose Heart; We were Made for These Times." I'm always floored, when I read Pinkola's golden words, to remember that English is her third language. She writes English more beautifully than most of us whose natal language it is.

Creative Activism in Teaching and Advising Creatives about ways to deal with META's theft of your work:
- Writers' Guild of Great Britain offers advice for using LibGen database in resisting theft of creative work by META for AI use: Advice for authors re LibGen database in resisting theft of work by META's for AI
- Anne Handley - The AI heist: Why every creator should be outraged
- Authors Guild - Meta's Massive AI Training Book Heist: What Authors Need to Know - Specific Actions You Can Take

Creative Activism in Music:
Yo-Yo Ma - Our Common Nature
Craig Pomranz - March Is Cabaret Month–Where Is the Mainstream Coverage?

Creative Activism in Public Speaking:
Bernie Sanders, with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - Plan For Americans To Defeat Trumpism

Creative Activism in Service:
Pete Buttigieg - I'm Not Running in 2026, But I Am Getting to Work

Creative Activism in Graphic Design:
Barbara Taylor - Signs for Democracy!

Creative Activism in Comedy:
Stephen Colbert - The Fertilization President

We Must Save the Journalists - by Elena Greco

ENTERTAINMENT

The protagonists of many shows are what we often think of as heroes, the superhero or savior type. Here are a few shows whose main characters don't fit the traditional mold of a superman sort of hero. Instead, they're exactly what heroes are in real life: people who overcome and rise above enormous obstacles to live a meaningful life, contribute to others, and continue to fight their battles, both inner and outer, without giving in. They show us what's possible for us as human beings; we can admire them and aspire to be like them—at least the part of them that rises to the heroic. (There are no perfect heroes....) Real heroes help us get in touch with the heroic within ourselves and inspire us to heroic action. And heroic action can take place in a moment or over decades.

Will Trent (ABC/Hulu) - You might wonder why I included this one. Watch it for a while and I think you'll understand....

The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu) - not only an example of the heroic on steroids, but essential watching for our times. Final season appears this month.

Schindler's List (Netflix) (1993)

Woman in Gold (2015) - I don't normally promote premium channels, but this movie, based on an incredible true story of heroic perseverance, is inspiring. I believe it's currently available only on Hulu Premium, Roku Premium, Apple+, and several others.