« Trying to Feel Better | Main | My Funny Husband »
December 13, 2004
Power
Suppose the people deciding your future looked at you one day and said, "Don't take this so personally, the things we tell you about what we do and don't like about your work. It's only one person's opinion." Would you even find the words to say, "Your opinion determines my fate?"
My friend Yolanda did. To one of her committee members. Because they can't understand why, as this committee member said to her, we "give them so much power." Tonight, at dinner (just the 2 of us at our ritual post-jury "what the fuck?" dinner) Yo said, "I don't give them jack. They have all the power. Nothing I can do will guarantee whether I do or don't get the degree I've worked so hard for and spent so much money on. I have no power. Either to take or to give." When she told her committee member that, they were speechless. Apparently these people hadn't realized that. How it could not have crossed their minds is beyond me.
I mean, you sign the paper that says yes or no, people. If your opinion is against me, I can't do anything about it. So if I take your comments in my jury personally, it's because it's an extremely personal kind of situation. If you were average theater goer, or critic for that matter, I really wouldn't care what you think as long as I know how I feel about the work I've done. But what you think is going to impact me hugely when it affects whether or not I get that degree. So how can I not get all distressed when you tell me you didn't like my work?
Posted by sally at December 13, 2004 08:48 PM
©2006 - All content copyright Sally Eames-Harlan unless otherwise noted