Letters to Aaron Sorkin

Last year I wrote more letters to you than to my Gran. Don't think you'll mind if I use today to start getting caught up.

Best,

Laura

Image by Playingwithbrushes via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license

I've been thinking about the idea of service lately, and this excerpt from a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speech gave me a new context for it. King talks about service as the great equalizer; anyone can serve. Anyone. I don't have to change what line of work I'm in or who I spend time with. I can look for opportunities in my community where service is needed, but I can also go throughout my day with service in mind and show up in that spirit. I believe that if people even made that small mental shift, the world would be a better place.

King's words written on the page are powerful, but nothing is like hearing him speak them. Hope you enjoy listening.

Happy New Year from a New Year's baby!  

Yes, my birthday is on New Year's Day, which always makes celebrating it a little weird. It's so close to the holidays and I'm usually traveling and people are spent from New Year's Eve. 

But I love that each year when I have a birthday, the whole world is celebrating a fresh start. They're staying up with late with Dick Clark (in America, at least) and friends and champagne and celebrating the transition from one year to the next. It's a global rebirth. In this hemisphere, it breaks up the winter and gives people a sense of energy and purpose. Can you imagine winter without our cultural reset button?

So I stayed up with Dick Clark and a dear friend and champagne. And I am hoping to remember that day, that rebirthday, later in the year if I feel stuck or that I'm losing my way. 

Do you have a favorite about the new year?

May this year bring as many fresh starts as you desire. 

Best, 

Laura

Just a little Q...

When do you keep an idea to yourself so it can percolate and grow, and when do you talk it about it with others so it can get some fresh air and new perspectives?

Best, 

Laura

The scene:

I go to hear a casting director speak. I've actually met her before and she cast me in a project, but the audition was so in and out that I wouldn't have recognized her if I saw her on the street. Or probably even in a casting office. She works in tv.

Someone asks, "What wows you in an audition?"

She says, "I don't need wow, I just need it to work."

Silence.

"I don't need to see range. I need to see 4 lines as a coked out drug dealer. I don't care if you can do Shakespeare, too."

I  look around the room. Most people get it. A few look like she just stepped on the neck of their teacup lhasapooaua. They smile to recover quickly.

They want her to KNOW. What They Can DO. What she needs to know is that they can do this one thing, and do it flawlessly. She needs a high functioning and reliable cog to fit into an established machine.

And now I've gone and kicked the lhasapooaua. I've said "cog." But I like this word, and I actually take great comfort in it. Because what it implies is that if I am the selected cog, it's pretty easy for me to know what my job is, know what need I am filling, and then go serve the piece in that way. 

I can take my Shakespeare elsewhere. Where it is needed. And serve something else.

Best, 

Laura