Who We Are and What We Do

As we watched old movie clips (because our dinner table conversation often leads in that direction or in the direction of watching TV commercials from the 70s), I was struck by a single camera shot that seemed to go on forever. During this same shot, a couple drove and another walked. Extras crossed streets. Merchants pushed their carts. I thought about how many takes it must have required to accomplish all the pieces, and how many ADs it must have taken to make sure each event and movement happened at just the right moment. I've never seen the movie, and I couldn't shed any light on the plot, but I was blown away by what must have gone in to that opening shot.

People say we define ourselves way too much by what we do, and not enough by who we are. As I realized tonight, though, what we do, whether it is one thing for years, or many things over a series of years, can't help but affect how we see the world. For me, that is being impressed by a long movie shot or thinking about how pieces of life will "edit" together, or back timing what can be done before a deadline. It's what I've done, but it's also who I am. I may not define myself every minute by my work, but if work, whatever it may be, gives me a unique view of the world around me, and if that makes up a bit of who I am, I am glad to have worked to tell stories, and to make pieces fit together, and to help people get things done on time.

We are who we are, and we do what we do, each wrapped up in the other. And if we're lucky, we get to do at least a little of something we're happy to have as a part of who we are.