Hiring POTUS

Did you happen to notice it is an election year? Okay, that was a bit snarky but if I weren’t following the cable news, political websites and social networking I wouldn’t know anything.  Then again, I am following cable news, political websites and social networking and I still don’t know anything.  Perhaps in my 50 years on this planet I had my head in the sand, but I really can’t remember an election year where so little positive was being reported. No wonder so many Americans are thinking about not voting at all. It’s not that I agree with that sentiment, but I can definitely relate. I am genuinely tired after watching cable news and reading political “reporting” on the internet. I can sit here and shout, “Shame on you cable news!” Or I can get on me soapbox and exclaim, “Let’s hear about the positive attributes of the candidates and not the negatives!” As I discovered, if you want to find positive things about any of the candidates, you have to really do your research.

What I discovered is there are indeed positives about all the candidates. Truly, there are! However, I’m going to ask you to discover them for yourselves. I know who I’m voting for and I have my reasons. But my reasons for not voting the other candidates, truly doesn’t have anything to with any meme, broadcast news story or any other rhetorical smear I read daily. My choice, in my opinion, is simply the most qualified to head the Executive Branch of our Federal Government.

Have you ever had to hire someone? Sitting in a managerial position and having the power to give someone a job or not isn’t always a pleasant one. I recall too well the many resumes I looked through before deciding who to call in for an interview.  Then, after the first set of interviews, there was whittling down to a select group who I felt best fit the position. There was sometimes a second interview where, usually, my choice was made.  What were the criteria I used? I quickly found out that there were usually many people who were qualified on paper. Their experience and education were usually very similar.  In the case of radio where I was doing the hiring, there was also the quality of their work. That too didn’t always weed out people because there were some very talented candidates. I usually came down to sitting across from them and talking. I didn’t believe in standard interviews, I usually like to just chat. And that’s where, after all the other criteria was met, I would make my subjective decision as to who to hire. So in the case of hiring someone to be President, I kind of think of it the same way.

From the start of this election process I looked at the many candidates and who I felt were qualified. Party or gender was irrelevant. I quickly was able to narrow it down to about six individuals on both sides of the aisle. And that was simply a matter of a good resume that best fit the POTUS job requirements. Then I imagined interviewing these people and finding out a little more about them. How effective might they be? Is what they are proposing, good for the country? Watching all the debates, and I only missed one or two, I was able to see some true candidates appear. Unfortunately, the candidate I felt was most qualified at this point in our history, didn’t get the nomination. But that’s all part of the system we have here in America. So now we have candidates who weren’t my first choice. But we do have qualified people who I feel could head the Executive Branch effectively. And I’ve made my choice.

I’m purposely not saying who I’m voting for because I don’t want to turn this into a back and forth battle of he said/she said. I’m writing this because perhaps it’s time for all of us to reevaluate why we’ve decided to vote the way we have. And if you haven’t made the decision yet, imagine you’re running a company and you had to choose one of the people out there as your successor. And don’t necessarily look at the negatives, look at ALL the positive attributes and qualifications and go from there. As I discovered from hiring folks, there were always things about people that could sway me from hiring them. But, there were just as many positive things about them to help me make the decision TO hire them.  What do you think?  Is it possible to stop posting horribly negative things about the candidates we don’t like and start informing people about the positive qualifications our candidates have to take over as President of the United States?

 

Why perform?

A particular attitude or way of regarding something is known as perspective. It’s also referred to as point of view. I’m famous for doling out the advice, “when we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change”, and when I take my own advice it’s beautiful. But it isn’t always easy. As an actor I’ve had the privilege to be able to perform in front of very large audiences. It’s a question many audience members have asked me over the years; “what’s the largest amount of people you’ve ever performed for?” And I have a few stock answers I usually give. What I should say is, “the size of the audience has nothing to do with it.”

I think some people measure the success of a particular performer by the number of years they’ve been doing it, what theatre’s they’ve worked at, who they’ve worked with, even what roles and shows they’ve done. They as an audience want to be able to impress friends and neighbors by telling them they saw an actor last  night who once performed on Broadway or was in a movie with Tom Hanks! As an actor I get caught up in that too. And when asked about our ‘biggest audiences’ my ego want to give them an answer they’d be proud of. I have to stop doing that.

I do not act because of an audience, big or small. Yes it’s true I love acting in front of a receptive audience who pay attention and are moved by what I’m doing, but it can’t be the only reason. And my level of enthusiasm for performing should not and cannot be ruled by the number of audience members attending.  It is all a matter of perspective.

This acting career more or less chose me. The fact that I make a living doing it is such a privilege. I’m making a concerted choice to change the way I look at things. I’m going to look at audience size from the the theatre’s perspective. I want the different venues to succeed so therefore I want them to sell more tickets. But that in no way will effect how I perform. I strive to give the same performance whether there are 30 people in the audience or 300. And if someone asks me what the biggest audience I’ve ever performed for I’m going to respond, “I try not to think of those things because they don’t have any bearing on what I do.” Yes, I love the symbiotic relationship of actor and audience. It’s why I do what I do. But the truth is, all it takes is one audience member to make that relationship happen. I’m going to meditate on that for awhile. 🙂