Los Angeles Acting blog by David August: You Are Never Alone

Friday, February 28, 2014

You Are Never Alone

Kevin McCorkle, a talented, inspiring and kind actor, teacher and friend, wrote this as his "Day 12 Gratitude" and I feel like I want to share it here:

The Synchronicity of Society. Back in the mid 1990's finding myself a single man I often ate meals out alone. I never mind eating alone, traveling alone or driving alone. It gives me the opportunity to study people and their behavior, grist for the mill as an Actor. There were times though that I would eat at my favorite dive Chinese Restaurant on the Sunset Strip and I was the only person there. I loved the food there the House Special Shrimp was my favorite the perfect crispy, salty, sweet and sour. I would think about all the elements of the meal and the hundreds of people or more that brought it to me. "How can that be?" you might ask "The Chef prepared it and the waitress brought it to you." Not so fast.... think about who caught the Shrimp. Who cleaned the Shrimp? Who packaged the Shrimp? Who delivered the Shrimp? The Chef mixed the breading for the Shrimp flour, egg, milk and sugar. The flour came from wheat planted in the mid-west it was planted by a farmer, harvested, transported to a mill, ground into flour, transported to a packaging facility, stored for a while, packaged, delivered to a wholesale facility and delivered to the restaurant where the Chef opens it to create the breading for my Shrimp. The eggs, the milk and the sugar also share a similar path. Combined with the spices and oil that are necessary to finish the dish. The rice came all the way from China, the pineapple from the Philippines, the tea from South America, the Lemon from southern California. Hundreds of people just for one meal. Who made the plate my food is on, the glass that holds my tea, my silverware and how many people are responsible for getting it to the place where it sits right now? The chair, the table, the restaurant itself all the way down to the fortune cookie that sits on top of my bill. So when you think you are alone know that there are hundreds maybe thousands of people responsible for you experiencing your solitary moment. Unseen hands and hearts and souls doing their individual thing to support you, nourish you, keep you safe, keep you healthy and share your world in the synchronicity of society.