Amazing Contacts

Of all the amazing changes I’ve seen and experienced first hand in my lifetime, nothing compares with the internet, and with the far-reaching effect of writing a blog.

I can remember a few moons ago, hearing from an actor friend of mine, who was calling me from the other side of this planet to tell me he had heard his voice on a commercial I had directed no more than a few days prior to his call. My amazement has been layered with many years of incredulousness. The spot he was referring to was no more than a few days in the can. Secondly, he was some place in Ireland working on a film when he made the call, and I wasn’t even aware it would be played outside the United States; a big time rarity in those days. In a matter of one week, the actor had auditioned, recorded the voice over, traveled to Ireland and heard his work firsthand. We thought it truly amazing. Many of us talked about the incident for a long time afterwards. Of course, that was a minor event compared to what we consider to be commonplace in today’s marketplace.

Our office receives calls from all over the world on a regular basis. It’s no big deal, but it is twenty-four seven, twelve months a year. Cell phones, emails, and the internet are all critical tools.

In the past, every actor had to have an answering service. There was always the danger of missing an important call. Today, every actor is reachable instantly by cell phone, email, or texting.

One of the aspects of all this speed and gadgetry is, I find much of it an invasion of my privacy. Mainly, it’s our constant companion the cell phone that annoys me the most.

I try not to give my cell phone number out to a wide variety of people. I may be wrong, but I get the feeling people who have my cell phone, or anyone else’s cell phone number for that matter, are under the impression we’re fair game to be called whenever they deem it necessary. Since most people annoy me anyway, you might understand my consternation when I’m busily involved with an important task of my choosing, and my cell phone rings.

Note: I consider the following grouping to be important tasks:
* Reading a book
* Sleeping
* Eating
* Going to the bathroom
* Breathing
* Driving
* Drinking single malt scotch
* And just about any forced abbreviation of anything of a personal nature

All of the aforementioned take constant precedence over cell phone communications with me.

Of all the most modern and time saving devices, nothing has touched my heart so readily as the internet. The ability to research almost anything instantly does boggle the mind. I can’t imagine what school would have been like if we all had the ability to do instant research.

Because I so intently value letters, the great importance of the scribed provenance from men of letters from around the world is my daily equivalent of one cherished moment after another.

While I consider the cell phone to be a necessary intrusion, the opposite evaluation applies to my internet contact with people around the world. The speed of which my letters fly is of such a nature, it astounds my comprehension. Light and time are known to have set equivalents for speed of travel. Figuring the speed of one’s internet communication to an individual in another corner of our earthly planet far exceeds this guy’s skill. But what I do know and understand is my constant amazement over the process; a blog (my journal) is posted, and in what seems like an instant, travels to people who I never thought might be recipients of my philosophical meanderings.

For what it’s worth… my journal has been read in thirteen countries. Of course, you would expect it to be read in these United States, but the following list grabs me every time I look at it; in no particular order theses countries are: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, India, Philippines, Australia, Spain, Germany, Norway, France, Colombia, and Iran.

Can you imagine? For those of you who are considered to be locked away in a country where freedom to communicate is not accepted as the norm, I send you my most heart-warming greetings from Los Angeles, California. Many of us around the world have a great many things in common, one of which is our dislike having a so-called leader telling us what to do. I promise not to post any comments being made from outside the United States without receiving your written permission. You, on the other hand, have my permission to download my blogs and post them at your will. Living in the United States gives me the marvelous extravagance of freedom of speech.

What I’m really getting from all this is one simple fact: People are people. Take away the names of the country of origin and we appear to have much more in common than we might have imagined before the advent of the internet.

FYI: My retinal specialist happens to be from Iran. I can’t wait to tell him I heard from people in his homeland.