What Are You ACTUALLY Watching?
Forget about who you thought you were, and just accept who you are.
Earlier today, I was watching an episode of 'Home Town' with my wife. If you don't know it - the show is about a married couple from Laurel, Mississippi, who renovate homes in their local area. Over many seasons they have been changing the town they live in - improving it piece by piece.
It's a heartwarming home makeover show.
In this particular episode, they were dealing with an asbestos problem. It got me wondering about the history of asbestos, when did they know it was a problem? What's the story behind it?
As we continued to watch, I thought to myself, "there must be some documentaries about asbestos."
Tonight, I considered watching a movie. Either 'Donnie Brasco' or 'Goodfellas'.
When it came to it, I realised I didn't have the energy to watch a whole movie.
Instead, I typed 'Asbestos Documentary' into the YouTube search bar.
We often perceive ourselves in a certain way. I like to think of myself as passionate about film, an avid reader, and a prolific writer.
Here we are, on 'You've Got Media', a creation of my own mind. A place where I imagined I would write deeply about movies, dissect news programming and pontificate on the nature of creativity.
I've hardly done any of those things.
At this stage in my life - I'm barely watching films. Struggling to find time to read. And when I get down time, I'm on YouTube, learning about asbestos.
If you want to know who you are, don't look at a shortlist of movies you're waiting to watch. Look at the last five things you actually viewed.
Whatever you did last night, and the night before, and the night before that, that's who you are right now.
Yes, I love movies. And I'm intrigued by all aspects of media.
Maybe it's my age. Maybe it's that I'm a Dad now with no spare time. Whatever the reasons - I have to accept who I am.
I'd love to be the guy with insight into every new release and how they compare to the classics, but that's just not where my head is at.
What that means for 'You've Got Media', I don't know. But here I am.
I guess I'm going to go learn some more about asbestos.
'Forget about who you thought you were, and just accept who you are.' -Maya (Liv Tyler in the film ‘Jersey Girl’)
Sometimes the smallest, most mundane things in life hold surprising insight or joy, just as much as great epics and classic films or works of art. Beauty in small, everyday moments is still beauty. Glad you are here on this planet enjoying the hills and valleys of the human experience with us!
Mainly a crap ton of acoustic guitar videos for me at the moment, the rest is work related. Can strongly relate to this piece! I have the same with video games - love them, identify strongly as a gamer, but rarely actually have the time or headspace to commit to them, and as a consequence, even when I do, I opt for something more manageable.