Thinking, continued.
As continued:
So I'm thinking, in deep thought to be exact.
Got a moment replaying in my head, here it goes, turn off the lights, turn on the camara, let your eyes adjust as the view on the screen flickers with a 3, 2, 1 and then a black and white image appears and its action:
That face is sitting there and saying that somethings got to be done.
Then the camara switches views and I'm sitting there trying to explain that everything's already been done.
Cut.
So what needs to be done? Theres a fun question and I've been thinking about it deeply for a while. Lets go back.
I'm in class and my teacher- a bigger guy, soft voice, warm eyes, conservative tendencies- asks me why I joined "the profession of lies" which my father fondly references to journalism as. And I'm sitting there looking for an answer and my professor is sitting there waiting for one. As I sit there about twenty or so flashbacks pop into my head, answers which I've given in the past, the first of which starts out "I joined journalism because I liked to write," the last of which starts out "I joined journalism because, really, I can't do anything else but write. Ha, ha, jokes on me, world!" and somewhere in between is the truth and it starts and ends with "to help the world become a better place."
Thats real simple. The truth usually is, after you go through the piles of lies and misconceptions.
"So, Chris, why did you join the ranks?"
I wait and find the real answer through all the lies I've given in the past and finally say: "Because I want to help." But then think to myself: "What the hell can one person do?" and that thought makes me feel tiny.
Two weeks later at a downtown conference over coffee, a breaking point. Boiling point? No, breaking point.
"Why would you want to work here, in international business, in PR?"
"Well..." I pause, a thousand answers run through my head. I think to myself what a thousand people like me would say in my place: to get a job, to get a contact, to please my father, to please my mother, to get rich, to start getting rich, to learn how to get rich, to be the best student ever, to get credit for doing nothing, etc. Why did I join up with political science?
"What if I said to help the world be a better place," and I smile afterward because my smile usually knocks them off balance in odd situations.
"This isn't the best place to start," she says.
But it is a start.
And now I'm thinking. "So what needs to be done?"
"Everything," that face on the screen would say.
And I'm remebering the words of my mentor, the late and great Uncle Phil: "Give 'em everything you've got. Thats about all you have, but it might be enough."
I gotta wonder if it really is.
How about a "TO BE CONTINUED" right here.
So I'm thinking, in deep thought to be exact.
Got a moment replaying in my head, here it goes, turn off the lights, turn on the camara, let your eyes adjust as the view on the screen flickers with a 3, 2, 1 and then a black and white image appears and its action:
That face is sitting there and saying that somethings got to be done.
Then the camara switches views and I'm sitting there trying to explain that everything's already been done.
Cut.
So what needs to be done? Theres a fun question and I've been thinking about it deeply for a while. Lets go back.
I'm in class and my teacher- a bigger guy, soft voice, warm eyes, conservative tendencies- asks me why I joined "the profession of lies" which my father fondly references to journalism as. And I'm sitting there looking for an answer and my professor is sitting there waiting for one. As I sit there about twenty or so flashbacks pop into my head, answers which I've given in the past, the first of which starts out "I joined journalism because I liked to write," the last of which starts out "I joined journalism because, really, I can't do anything else but write. Ha, ha, jokes on me, world!" and somewhere in between is the truth and it starts and ends with "to help the world become a better place."
Thats real simple. The truth usually is, after you go through the piles of lies and misconceptions.
"So, Chris, why did you join the ranks?"
I wait and find the real answer through all the lies I've given in the past and finally say: "Because I want to help." But then think to myself: "What the hell can one person do?" and that thought makes me feel tiny.
Two weeks later at a downtown conference over coffee, a breaking point. Boiling point? No, breaking point.
"Why would you want to work here, in international business, in PR?"
"Well..." I pause, a thousand answers run through my head. I think to myself what a thousand people like me would say in my place: to get a job, to get a contact, to please my father, to please my mother, to get rich, to start getting rich, to learn how to get rich, to be the best student ever, to get credit for doing nothing, etc. Why did I join up with political science?
"What if I said to help the world be a better place," and I smile afterward because my smile usually knocks them off balance in odd situations.
"This isn't the best place to start," she says.
But it is a start.
And now I'm thinking. "So what needs to be done?"
"Everything," that face on the screen would say.
And I'm remebering the words of my mentor, the late and great Uncle Phil: "Give 'em everything you've got. Thats about all you have, but it might be enough."
I gotta wonder if it really is.
How about a "TO BE CONTINUED" right here.
posted by Chris Miles at 10:58 PM
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