Vanity!

I decided last year to get an IMDB.com profile.

Earlier this month I wrote in eulogy for Patrick McGoohan. Though I am a free man, I am also a number. Many numbers, actually.

Henceforth, I, Peter Corless, am also to be known as http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3177242/.

I appeared in two short videos last year: Franklin Pham’s The Rehearsal (Canaan Project/Positive+Funk), and Three Cups of Tea for Global Understanding (Global Understanding Institute).

The former was awarded as a finalist from San Jose State University’s Campus MovieFest 2008. The latter won second place in the 2008 Mountain View Reads contest. This year, we have more plans for more films. Documentaries. Analysis. News. Opinions. Fantasies. Fictions.

Is this shameless self-promotion? Yes. Though in a way, it is actually quite humbling. Because the IMDB resumes are not really the same things as a regular celebrity profile. I had to pay to put it up there. I had to “prime the pump” of celebrity. I also registered in IMDBpro.com to put the information on these films into IMDB.com. However, though The Reheasal was shown in a few venues (SJSU, San Francisco Sundance Kibuki Theatre), and Three Cups of Tea for Global Understanding made it to community television (KMVT15 in Mountain View), neither title has made it into IMDB.com yet. Maybe one day!

It is my own way to help move forward the issues addressed in these films. If I need to put my face forward as a speaker for these movements, by process of marketing I need to become a celebrity. A spokesperson. An actor, with a cause.

Hopefully before too long, my STARmeter will rise. People may pay attention to my work, my causes, more than me. I might attract fans. Hey, I might even get paid! Yet moreso, the ideas I espouse might cause social changes in the world, producing results I would be pleased to look back upon some day in the future.

For now, my hope is to simply generate interest. To “market” the idea of Global Understanding, Positive+Funk, and the Canaan Project. And more ideas, like Flowers in the Cracks too! To put myself forward as a creative principle, and to hopefully get people to react to the “buzz” our community is beginning to create.

Vanity. Is it vain to strive towards these ideals? Franklin’s desire for social justice, peace, and sober acceptance of truth. Carlos’ desire for distributive justice and democracy. Harshi’s desire for us to get beyond sectarian hate so that love can bloom. Theresa’s desire for simple acceptance, health and happiness for us all. Michael’s desire for a sustainable economy and ecological life, even as our economy crashes down around our heads. Photographers capturing the light before it fades. Musicians and poets raising their voices even after the sun goes down. Scientists and writers, who are quite sure it is not just all in their heads.

I am awash in a sea of friends, each of whom has trials and tribulations, their triumphs and joys. People all over the world, each with their own story. Yet so many of us facing the same common crises and conflicts.

Vanity? Our struggles are not in vain. Even if no one understands what drives us — not even ourselves at times — we struggle for reasons. Purposes. There are implicit goals and desires for us. Outcomes waiting our efforts to manifest.

It would be vain to think I did not have an effect on the world. A false self-denial that should not be confused with humility. That would be a vain shattering of the mirror. Throwing a brick at it so I don’t need to look at myself. It would not change the fact that others can see me for who I am. And they are asking me to step up to the microphone of the stage of life right now. They want me to speak. They want to hear what I have to say.

Conversely, it would be vain to overstate my significance to the world. For I am only one voice of 6.7 billion in the world at this present point in history. If I raise my voice, it is only in reflection of the tremendous tapestry of events that has led us to this point in time, and which I see occurring in the world around me, leading towards our future.

Last year, with the founding of the Global Understanding Institute, and with the making of these modest movies with Franklin and others, I committed to put forth myself as an advocate. To lead. To be of service. To be a friend. As a protagonist in a screenplay of life.

All the world’s a stage and I am a player upon it. The curtain is of destiny is drawn for us all.

So, to everyone out there who feels that same impending sense of epic drama in the world, let’s learn our lines, and head onstage. It’s time. Let’s break a leg!