So the other day I was driving through the grubby wasteland that is Hollywood and came across a crowd of camera waving fans. Fans of what, I wondered. Was it a premiere? No, in fact it was a Star ceremony on the Walk of Fame. The recipient - Will Smith.
Will had yet to arrive, so I pulled into a rare parking spot and stood amongst the excited throng, waiting across the street from Graumann's Chinese Theatre, to catch a glimpse of a true A-list star. After 30 minutes of jostling (and curses thrown at drivers who chose to stop and block our view), Will Smith arrived looking remarkably like Will Smith. He gave a sweet little speech about his meeting with Mandela and how the former President of South Africa shared an experience from his 27 years in captivity.
The prisoners saw one movie a year, and it so happened that they screened "In the Heat of the Night" that particular year. Mandela noticed an edit where something had been cut out by the censors, and asked through his channels what that might be. He discovered it was the scene where Sydney Poitier slapped Rod Steiger. At that moment, he said, he discovered the true power of film for change. If a Black man could be shown to strike a White man in an American film, then film was a powerful force.
Whether or not that made Will feel better about making $20m a picture, I do not know. I do know that Will always delivers. And even Elvis (albeit an Elvis impersonator on Hollywood Blvd), was captivated by the man of the hour. I managed to take this snap of him without him asking me for the customary 5 bucks. So we all went home happy, I guess. Some of us are just on a different list. The "no-one's really heard of me yet but they might one day" list. And that's promising.
"Yet" is a powerful thing, too.
You can throw the word at the end of any task or goal you've yet to complete or accomplish, and turn the whole thing around. Make it a positive.
Eg: I haven't started my diet..yet.
Or: I haven't done the dishes...yet.
You haven't done them yet, but the implication is that you will, sometime in the not-too-distant future. You WILL get to them. You WILL get it done.
So may I bid you a fond and festive farewell and wish that all your "yets" become yesses in the not-too-distant future!
Happy Holidays!
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