Two things happened over the past several weeks that allow me to believe that things in our society aren’t necessarily as bad as everyone says they are. As usual, the events in question are found where we least expect them: one on the sports page and the other in the movie industry.
From the sports page comes a story that reads as a morality tale straight from the ancient Greeks. I suspect you all know the details, but I’ll briefly recount them here: Armando Gallaraga pitching for Detroit had pitched 8 2/3rds perfect innings against Cleveland when Jason Donald hit a grounder and headed for first. Veteran umpire Jim Joyce (one of the best, and most experienced, umps in baseball) called him safe. Perfect game, and no hitter, ended. However, the replay showed Donald was clearly out. But the call had been made and that was that. Gallaraga had missed pitching just the 21st perfect game in the 110-year history of modern baseball. (He did get the next batter out and won the game – you might call it a 30 out perfect game.)
Joyce knew what he had done and apologized - profusely. Gallaraga also realized what was what and not only accepted the apology, acknowledged that simply ‘no one is perfect,’ and then in a display of true sportsmanship, delivered the starting line-up for the next game to the home-plate umpire – Jim Joyce, and shook his hand.
A similar tale appears to have come out of Hollywood, though it is worth noting that the reporting is less clear. The young and rising star Megan Fox was reported to have walked off the set for the movie Transformers 3. Hollywood wags noted that Miss Fox was going to shoot her professional career in the foot, that she was a rising star because of the first two movies in the series and that she was likely to fade as quickly as she rose. The story from the Fox camp, thought muted, was simply that the director was tyrannical and professionally too demanding and controlling. The workers on the movie set then posted a letter on a blog stating that Fox was difficult to work with. The industry wags then raised the issue of how much money Fox was likely to lose, implying that she would never make that kind of money if she walked out on top directors.
Which leads me to ask a simply question: Is it possible that Miss Fox thinks there are more important things in the world then money? I don’t know Megan Fox from the Man in the Moon, nor do I know her real motivations, but it is worth considering that her motivations just happen to be different then some of those who have sold their souls in Tinsel Town, and that staying on a movie set where you are getting yelled at all the time simply wasn’t worth the money they were paying her. Perhaps she has realized that real success isn’t measured in the size of your bank account or in the number of awards you receive, particularly from a self-absorbed crowd like that often found in Hollywood. I hope that that is so, and if so, I salute her.
The fact is that both of these stories provide an opportunity to ask ourselves some questions about what is really important. I don’t know the motivations of either of the two people involved, but their recent actions speak well of them; many of our so-called leading figures would do well to emulate such behavior.
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