Power

Today's photo brought to you by yours truly. Image shows a film set with camera crew in the foreground and the cast and the director in the background.

I helped my partner on a special project over the weekend in a location close enough to USC that I had flashbacks of DTLA adventures.

Instead of watching a movie at L.A. Live or searching for my next Annenberg story, however, I watched an amazing cast and crew create magic from something that started as an idea. It was powerful stuff.

Due to medical issues I didn’t have nearly the amount of stamina these folks have (which made me feel frustrated for looking like the lazy one), and I had time to think about the bonds that tie us. Friendships, family, mentors, colleagues. I thought about how much it means for one to be loved, or at least, extremely liked.

There’s a sort of power in that, the ability to have people who are always in your corner no matter what. The ability to call on help when its needed. There are boundaries, of course, you can’t just exploit that sort of love all the time.

But there’s no denying that the reason our species has endured over this planet for as long as we have is because of our ability to create such bonds and cultivate that sort of power.

I’m reminded of the Harry Potter books that defined my childhood and I remember that Lord Voldemort believed the two kinds of people that exist in this world are those who hold power and those who are too weak to seek it.

But love, he didn’t realize, is its own power. And that became his downfall.

In any case, I still need to lie down. The entertainment industry is more than just awards season and marketing campaigns, and don't you ever forget it.