Be Kind!

Being on set has left me exposed to a wide variety of personality types and work environments, varying from absolute pleasure to work with to "this person, myself, and anything that can be used as a weapon cannot be near each other".  During the rare down-times, I'd be able to catch directors and producers off guard and speak to them about their careers.  All of them have similar stories of how they traversed through long winding roads of odd jobs, rejections, miscommunications, and fortune, but one thing that remains constant with them (the ones that are pleasant) is the reason they have become such a delight to work for.

"My producer on this one gig, she was an absolute terror.  She actually hit me with rolled up newspapers and shit, and working for her was just absolutely God-awful.  I stayed, but I vowed from then on that I would never treat someone like that ever."

Although it makes me wonder how many bad times with bad people are needed for people to act appropriately, my point is that empathy becomes the vessel for kindness far too often to ignore.  It could be as simple as being extra generous to waiters because you used to be one and know the disappointment of being under-tipped.  And it could extend to much more profound territories like commiserating with the loss of a loved one.  It's because human experience has no language.  There are no barriers to conjuring up demons from your past watching a student getting bullied, a widow grieving, or a heart being broken. It is full on, no-holds-barred, unadulterated connection.

And that is why I am more convinced than ever that God came down as a man for that reason alone.  Not so much that He could empathize, but more so that His message be understood in the way that He created us to receive it, in a full on, no-holds-barred, unadulterated way.