Jane Clark Blog - March 21st 2007I just read an article about a new book by Rebecca Walker. She writes about the profound personal changes she experienced having a child. She makes a statementin her book about parents not being able to loveadopted children as deeply as parents can love biological children. Being adopted myself I found that to be at the very least insensitive, but more over I found the statement ignorant, self-absorbed and myopic. Just because she is not capable of loving a step child from an earlier relationship at a deep level is only indicative of her own limitations. Ironically she writes in her earlier book that blood is just blood. With this new book she didn't learn from making sweeping statements about children in her early feminist book and now she writes the opposite with the same tone of righteousness. I share this with you because I was asked to write a blog this week on What I think and What I know. And I began the blog by making a sweeping statement that would seem to imply that the ideas I was espousing should apply to everyone. Learning a lesson from Rebecca Walker's mistakes, I will instead just tell you what I know works for me. I believe that everything that has happened in my life - the experiences, classes, sports, hobbies, credit card debt, failed attempts, difficult challenges, hardknocks -- all of it, have built upon themselves to bring to where I am now, both as a person and professionally. Each moment in life has been an important addition to the arsenal of Jane. And those additions would mean nothing if I had not recognized, accepted and learned from each of them. I am still not where I want to be, and I know I havemany more such moments to absorb to get there. (Though I will say that I hope that the day I reach the beginning of achieving my life goals will come sooner rather than later!) So I am grateful for all of it,good and bad, boring and rewarding, disappointing and elating. I find living life with this personal truth is helpful and reassuring. Perhaps you do too. Perhaps you don't. Everyone has to find their own way. Looking back, my enjoyment of life outweighs the bad times, even though while I'm sitting in the shit it seems overwhelming. I enjoy little things, like a new bud on my rose bushes, my little dog laying his head on my hand, a hummingbird buzzing by, a warm day with a cool breeze, the smell of the ocean, the smile of a friend, a kiss from my husband. I can argue either side of an issue and mean it. I tend to support the underdog. Injustice outrages me. Injustice can make me cry. I love making movies and I'm good at it, though I am not an artist, I am a craftsperson. What I consider the best films, or shouldI say the films that I enjoy the most, are films that make me laugh and cry in the same story. There's nothing like a good laugh and cry. Go ahead, call me commercial, I don't mind. I am. With this blog, I have been and will continue to write about my experiences with Hollywood from the business to the craft of it, from the film festivals to theparties. I hope sharing my thoughts, experiences and struggles will be interesting and perhaps even inspiring, reassuring and/or insightful as you go alongon your own journey. Jane Clark
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