Or why Samuel Shane Worthington is my new personal hero.
Sometimes profound things can begin from total inanity. In my case it goes something like this:
I’m at Target with my mom and we’re looking at movies. She says “Hey, Jo, what about Terminator: Salvation?”. (Bear with me here, I really am going somewhere with this.) I nod in agreement. I probably made a comment about how I thought it was better than everyone made it out to be. I probably made another comment about how I thought both of the male stars were hot (under my breath though, cause this is my moms we’re talking about).
A few days later I put the movie in and Sam Worthington Mack Trucks me. Duh duh duh. Jo has celebrity crush #739. (In case you’re keeping score: that was the inane beginning…)
Of course, what does an obsessing Jo do with an internet connection and ridiculous amounts of free time? Yeah. I did. Here’s what I found: acres of Sam Worthington interviews. Now, while I’m listening to or reading or watching these interviews something curious starts to happen. I start getting really, really excited (and I’m not talking about in a ‘below the belt’ kind of way either). Something was bubbling up through all the f-bombs, table thumping, and beard scratching. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what “it” was but I felt like something crazy. Something free.
Here’s what Sam talks about, a lot: Work. Why. Work. Realness. Work. Honesty. Work. And in between the lines of these workaday themes is a burning desire to be present and true to things he’s chosen to do without changing his fundamental self, without playing the games people play. Straight and true.
I thought: Wow. I want this. I want to have that kind of focus. The kind that says, “I am insanely passionate about what I do. I will put every atom in my body to the task.”
It felt good to hear the power of such basic statements. Simple? Maybe. But not easy. Then again, that’s why I like it so much; there is no action toward the path of least resistance in anything he’s saying. I’ve always admired people who go their own way without a care for the rumblings of the crowd. I think this man stands on his own. He’s doing it without all the posturing and the pretense; he’s doing it with the kind of passion that draws comparisons to the fusion reactions in stellar objects. Sam Worthington is hitting “Be You Now” on the head with a 20 ton sledgehammer. Every day, fully, unequivocally committed.
So, yeah. Time to get committed without making apologies for being who you are. You have to have the courage to be able to measure yourself against… yourself. Comparisons to anyone else don’t matter, are arbitrary at best. The real test is: Can I look myself in the eye and not be embarrassed by what I see? And if I am? There’s an answer for that too.
“Don’t be embarrassed. Get better.”
That’s the sound of the hero getting back up after being knocked down. I LOVE that song. I’m going to sing it until it becomes my personal soundtrack. When it does it’ll go something like this: Passion! Work. Realness. Honesty. Work! That’s a fine tune to walk out a life to. I think it rocks.
