It's interesting, Jim, how as we move through life we look back and assess how we've done, what we've accomplished, we measure ourselves against others in our field (dangerous!), we think of the should'ves, the almosts, the if onlys. Some start to wonder and worry about their legacies, what they will be leaving behind. I work in two highly competitive fields, theater and film, where you can be on top of the world one minute, and utterly forgotten the next. Most careers are herky-jerky messes. I've been to memorial services of several actors whose next-of-kin decided to show clips from TV shows and films they've been in. Mostly supporting roles where they had a scene or two. It's usually pretty depressing stuff, especially when you know their best work was done onstage experienced in the moment by an audience and left as a memory - or not - which is the ephemeral nature of theater. We all have our NYT Best Seller Lists that we failed to reach, and as you pointed out had we reached them it would have been the Nobel Prize. We always seem to concentrate on what we don't have instead of the good things that we do have. And yet reaching for those un-obtained goals usually makes us better at what we do. I really don't have any answers here, but thanks for the provocative post!
Thanks for this, Sturgis. You have an unusually wide view of the matter in terms of the work you've done, the work you've fostered, and what you've witnessed -- not all of it unfolding on a set. I can be painful, but bracing, to honestly assess where we are.
It's interesting, Jim, how as we move through life we look back and assess how we've done, what we've accomplished, we measure ourselves against others in our field (dangerous!), we think of the should'ves, the almosts, the if onlys. Some start to wonder and worry about their legacies, what they will be leaving behind. I work in two highly competitive fields, theater and film, where you can be on top of the world one minute, and utterly forgotten the next. Most careers are herky-jerky messes. I've been to memorial services of several actors whose next-of-kin decided to show clips from TV shows and films they've been in. Mostly supporting roles where they had a scene or two. It's usually pretty depressing stuff, especially when you know their best work was done onstage experienced in the moment by an audience and left as a memory - or not - which is the ephemeral nature of theater. We all have our NYT Best Seller Lists that we failed to reach, and as you pointed out had we reached them it would have been the Nobel Prize. We always seem to concentrate on what we don't have instead of the good things that we do have. And yet reaching for those un-obtained goals usually makes us better at what we do. I really don't have any answers here, but thanks for the provocative post!
Thanks for this, Sturgis. You have an unusually wide view of the matter in terms of the work you've done, the work you've fostered, and what you've witnessed -- not all of it unfolding on a set. I can be painful, but bracing, to honestly assess where we are.