Christina Linhardt of Southern California on Life, Lessons & Legacy

Christina Linhardt shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Christina, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What are you chasing, and what would happen if you stopped?
There is a fine line between being proactive and trying too hard. Sometimes, I think I am stuck in the latter. Being proactive certainly has worked for me, I have fulfilled so many artistic dreams and made a living at it, but maybe I have too much tunnel vision. Maybe the “success” I’m envisioning and striving for is keeping me from allowing wonderful experiences I never could imagine, from finding me.
To quote “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse : “Perhaps that you are seeking too hard? That you seek so hard that you do not find?”

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Thank you so much for inviting me to be interviewed. My upbringing was eclectic. Born in Los Angeles, I am a native Angeleno, and yet, in so many ways, I feel foreign, because we spent 3 to 4 months every year of my childhood in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. It definitely influenced my artistic life. In short, I received my degree in operatic singing from USC Thornton School of Music. I work as an entertainer mostly for live performances: singing cabaret, classical concerts, or fronting an Oktoberfest band, Polynesian dancing for Luaus, and Celtic dancing for St. Patrick’s Day events, live characters at Huntington Gardens events, Tarot card reading, and a plethora of other creative exhibitions. I also lead a theater as therapy program, working with veterans in recovery at the Los Angeles Veterans Hospital campus. On camera work includes child size hand modelling for commercials and a dabbling of “side-lining” gigs as a flutist. Plus I produced two short documentaries, “Guantanamo Circus” and “TROY! The Original Lady Boy” as well as produced 4 indie albums, “Circus Sanctuary” (Cirque/World/Easy-Listening) , “Voodoo Princess” (Tropical/Cirque/Easy-Listening) “Come Again” (unplugged classical guitar and soprano) and Volxtronic’s “Fairytale Fetish” (Euro-Folktronica).

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
As so many of us are, I was extremely insecure as a young adult, and even a bit neurotic. We all have our insecurities, but I do believe there are degrees. It was not just one person, but a group of people, older, loving friends, who were also creatives, who made me understand I was loveable and had value, a feeling I didn’t have growing up in such a chaotic and stressful environment. Right out of college, the late, great Ron Sossi asked me to be his assistant director/associate producer at the Odyssey Theater. All of a sudden I was organizing so much, and overseeing Class Act actors, whom I revered and looked up to. I was just a kid, but they treated me with such respect. Seasoned thespians befriended me and actually complimented my work. And because I always believe in being kind, my friends and co-workers were kind back, and I finally felt valid. My self esteem started to recover. It proves the old adage “We give what we most need to receive”.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
People often don’t believe it, because my outward nature is very cheerful. And I always had a joie de vivre and joyous spirit, however underneath, I suffered from severe depression for so many years. Debilitating depression. I didn’t let people know because I didn’t want to appear weak. I was also told by my mother “I’m toughening you up.” So vulnerability was not a positive attribute in my childhood. My depression led to almost giving up on life, too many times to remember.
I remember once, a beautiful Renaissance Faire actress telling me, late at night in her tent, after-Faire, “I give up drinking every day.” Alcohol and drugs are not my vice, but performing can be an addiction. Sometimes I say “I give up performing every day.” But then what would I do. It is “The Agony and the Ecstasy”. And through my artistic work I have grown and discovered so much of the world. Though I sometimes struggle with being a full time performer, I am eternally grateful I actually “get” to do this for a living.
Back to depression, we are just beginning to understand the role hormones play (for both men and women) in conjunction with mental health.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
Believing legacy media, and that their news is telling them the truth. All news stations have a board of directors they have to answer to, and that board usually consists of corporatists, executives from Big Pharma, the Military-Industrial Complex and so forth. Yet, I see so many intelligent friends, college educated (often mostly college educated) post skewed memes, accusing the opposite side of their ideological or political aisle of doing exactly that which they are guilty of. The judgement, the prejudice, the condemning, and even silencing. Rule of thumb: If it is partisan, it is not news, it is propaganda. The only way we can find the truth is by committing to the arduous task of listening to hearings unedited, reading bills passed, reading police reports, listening directly to a person’s entire speech, not a clipped version with a pundit’s commentary. But who has time for that? Still, I’m surprised how many friends fall for the Orwellian programming which permeates the entire landscape. I too fell for it, being so blindly one-sided. And so I need to constantly check myself and see if I’m slanted or making excuses.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If immortality were real, what would you build?
A New Earth. So many people are talking about the New Earth. It is more an internal state. I don’t want to reincarnate here on planet Earth. Too much suffering, killing, destruction. Just to survive, we have to kill something, even if we are vegetarians. Still plant life must die. Trees are cut down to build our homes. We step on insects. e use resources. How much of what we buy is made by sweatshop labor or child labor? Not just overseas, but we are discovering it is happening right here in the US.
I would want to build a world of light. Light bodies. Cosmic and ethereal. A world, an existence we can not even imagine, it is so infused with light.

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Image Credits
Anthony Verebes, Paul Zollo, Alan Katz, Mathew Caine/Digitrope, Zenya

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