The show paired two people whom I enjoy for primarily the same reason. They talk to people to bring out their stories, what motivated them and the choices they made, the influences that shaped these, how they perceive themselves, and how they assess their lives.
In today's conversation with Rose, Walters said the one personal feature that made her good at what she did and also made her enjoy what she did was curiosity. This interest in things—what they are, how they come about, what value or use they have, what role they play in how our cards play out in life—is what I usually call energy. It is in Buddhism one of the factors of enlightenment. With interest one pays attention; with attention one learns and accomplishes things.
Ideas and people's lives fascinate me. Being able to nourish and multiply the energy of this fascination and being able to capture the process such that I can share them with others: these are what I want at the core of how I live out the rest of my life.
My life has taken a different route but I can identify with many of Barbara's perceptions about hers. She spoke of her childhood and the influence on her and her subsequent life of her sister and her parents. Our relationship with our parents lies at the center or near the center of how we see ourselves and the choices we make that create our lives.
And then we have the personality characteristics and our drives. Walters didn't envision herself becoming a major media personality and celebrity. She named her one great skill the skill of seeing what is important and how best to communicate this. She called this editing.
Editing is specialized decision-making. We choose from several ways to go. Each choice narrows the possibilities while taking us deeper into the specialized experience and skills that those choices give us.
Charlie Rose's conversation with Walters this afternoon and Eytan Fox's movie Walking on Water that I re-watched last night: what do they have in common? Both commandeered my interest completely. They riveted my attention as surely as nails fixed Jesus on his cross. Watching and listening, my mind stopped evaluating itself and applied what was usually self-centered and infertile to something "out" there where the kind of creativity I want can exist.
Barbara described herself as an introvert before she went in front of the TV camera. Her insecurities drove her to work harder and to take advantage of what chance lay across her path. She did not stop at self-scrutiny. She applied what she knew of the process to elicit the spectacular interviews that lay at the heart of her success. She used her most private resources in her public life. This is energy of a different sort. This is how I want to use energy.
I can dissect my story and the stories I hear about other people. I've done this a lot. It's not where I want to take the remaining years of my life. I want to share what I have lived through and what experiences and insights my choices have given me in a manner that makes other people feel the way I did watching Charlie Rose this afternoon or watching the Israeli movie last night.
It's like the parable of the talents in the Christian gospels. We can keep the energy to ourselves and it doesn't multiply. It is when we risk losing what moves and inspires us by putting it out there that energy really shows what it is really about.
This is art: our personal curiosities thrust into the public conversation that the energies collide and become fruitful.
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