Things I don't do...
Greetings,
Hanging out with new acquaintances, it doesn't take very long to be accosted by the dreaded question. "What do you do for a living?"
How is this question even relevant? Does it really serve any purpose? Is it even necessary to be brought up so early? What gets to me is the "...for a living?" part. It should be the least of anyone's concerns. To me, it feels like someone whom I barely know is asking "What is it that you do which helps you pay your bills?"
Deep inside, my brain comes to a screeching halt. It almost feels like I am having a stroke.
If someone forwarded you this newsletter, please thank them on my behalf! Welcome to Newsletter # 34.
Thoughts that crossed my mind, while I was reading…
A Terrorist Lawyer, and Proud of It by Nancy Hollander
In a recent tennis match, one of the players smashed his racquet in anger. The chair umpire promptly awarded him a penalty. A short while later, his opponent was flagged for a different infraction for which he received a soft verbal lashing.
The player who had received the harsher penalty protested the mild treatment meted out to his opponent. The violations were different, no doubt, but in the spirit of the law they were both destructive. Neither set a good example for viewers, especially the younger lot.
Once the rules of a game are drawn, they should apply equally to all. It is a "One Size Fits All" approach. There can be no other way. Players may have a different shoe size but the ball always weighs two ounces.
Having a different set of laws for different people leads to double standards. When it does happen, the purpose of having a rule of law in the first place is defeated. Having double standards is no different to being in a lawless society. It will no longer be a fair game. It is more like a war scene where it no longer is a game and nothing needs to be fair.
When rules get side lined to suit ideologies, an anarchic society is born. People who are currently not impacted, and enjoying a favourable bias, ignore the possibility of someday finding themselves on the wrong side.
It is too late when you are a victim with no recourse. There is no point in having rules if there are a privileged few who do not have their feet held to the fire. The law must apply equally to everyone. Even those who wrote it up.
Ashok Amritraj on making the leap from Sports Star to Movie Mogul by Dalya Alberge
Keeping with the theme of "What do you do for a living", it is fascinating to read the path Jean Claude Van Damme took before achieving stardom.
In 1984, as “an out-of-work producer”, he received an unknown actor’s photograph in the post. “Not having anything to do, I rang him up.” Amritraj asked him what he did. “He said, ‘I act’. He couldn’t speak English very well. I said, ‘I understand, but what do you do for a living?’ He said, ‘I drive limos’.”
And equally fascinating is Ashok Amritraj's path - “Many of the entertainment guys came to watch me play. I got to know a lot of the studio executives and wonderful actors like Sidney Poitier and Dustin Hoffman, who were good tennis players,” he says.
Invited to their homes, he sensed a way into film-making, only to realise they were more interested in playing tennis with him. When he told them he wanted to make films, conversations returned to backhands and serves. “Everybody wanted me to play tennis at their house, but nobody wanted to make a movie with me.”
This topic was interesting for Hiroyuki. He has probably spent as many hours in a Boeing 747 as he has on Planet Earth. But what he said stuck with me.
He said he would like to be known as an avid photographer. He added, no matter what he embarks on, his principles of working remain the same.
A rose by any other name…
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Stay well and see you next week.
Evian
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