"A Little Lesson in Courage"

Today I took a little time in the early afteroon to watch something both entertaining and insightful....

My sister, Rachel, still has a number of boxes of things in our apartment -- despite having had her own apartment for some time now. Yesterday, my roomate, Scott, and I finally moved the remainder of those boxes down into the basement storage area, in favor of freeing up some more closet space for some of our things. One of those smaller boxes was full of video tapes of a variety of television shows taped off the television. Shows like some of the early episodes of "Smallville", some Star Trek episodes, and so forth. One tape, however, held a copy of one of the episodes from "Inside the Actor's Studio". This one was the 2001 episode interviewing Robin Williams.

Now, I'll be honest, having watched him and enjoyed his interview, I really do have to respect him quite highly. He has the immense talent for voice acting (a skill I am yet working on myself), and knows how to entertain an audience. He's honest, straightforward, and apparently theatrically fearless. While I don't always appreciate some of his crude humor, it is still very engaging to get such an inside look into his perspectives on life and acting, his fears and motivations, and his unique thought processes. He's open, spontaneous, and creative. I could learn a lot from him.

There's a new motto I've been trying to follow lately.... A new perspective on my own motivations, successes, and overcoming those things that I personally fear in life: "Courage is doing the opposite of that which you fear."

If Robin Williams can find a way to do that, than honestly, what's stopping me?

-Jon
posted by Jon at 4:06 PM  I   I  0 comments