Posted by Sean Astin on his
Facebook page.
I'm heading up to Canada today to participate in the Vancouver Sun Run. Tiffany Crawford a reporter from the Vancouver Sun tells me that over 50,000 people will show up. This'll be the largest group of people I have ever run with by nearly double.
It is a strange and surreal time to be alive. Since the second world war, television has brought people close together in times of joy and tragedy. As a boy I remember moments like the space shuttle Challenger disaster and the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan and the death of Elvis... I remember the 1984 Olympics, the television show Roots, the birth of MTV. These shared experiences made me feel totally connected to the world. Each Community National Television "event" left me feeling closer to everyone, entitled to stand taller as an informed citizen and thoughtful human being. As an actor, "emotions" are tools of my trade. I come from a family of talkers and feelers. We SHARE. We don't seem to know any other way to resolve conflict until everyone has taken a heartfelt journey through the range of emotions that we all are feeling, arriving on the other side of a family gathering, relieved, exhausted, satisfied. When I was a kid, we didn't merely listen to stories, we joined them. For us, being an audience member carried immense responsibility. It is a selfish way to be, but somehow any other way of being feels lazy or ungrateful.
Now, what insanity befalls people like me when we have instant shared access to the world. Now, every breath from every person in the world is shared. National & International events are not meant to be experienced and internalized as a moment to be related to one another as we walk through life. Now, we can affect everything! Walking on the moon isn't a performance to be marveled at, it's an opportunity to tweet with the astronauts.
Interactivity.
