Vee Eye Pee

So the topic of VIP's came up the other night whilst at the bar with some friends and a couple acquaintances. In my typical fashion I was pretty sleep deprived and using my straw to blow into my cup of ice to melt it to make water faster since our poor waitress was literally serving the entire restaurant and hadn't been by in a while.

Upon taking a swig of my most recent, let's call it "water harvest," I over heard one of the fellows who had been invited talking about procuring an iPhone 4 for someone and he being annoyed that an Apple employee would not circumvent the prioritization system for them so that this gentleman could get the coveted device for his friend. Interest piqued, I asked who the man in question was that would like an iPhone 4. My answer came in the form of "A very respected member of the athletic community."

I thought to myself, "Ok, a celebrity" and promptly blurted out "Fuck 'em." The table fell silent and all eyes were on me. I decided to go with it, "Good for the Apple guy, I don't see why some asshole with an over-inflated ego should be treated any differently than any other human being. VIP is such a bullshit term."

Personally, I try to treat most people in as respectful a manner as possible, but I've definitely been known to judge a person and find myself with my foot in my mouth later. It's a problem I've been trying to work on and I feel I've made some improvement. But that's not what this is about, it's about "Very Important People"

You know who I think is a VIP? My mother, and father, and the members of my family and my close friends. I think that for the most part, your typical VIP is only treated as such because our society tells us so. I don't buy that. Now, don't confuse this to be me saying, don't have a hero, or an inspiration, I think that's totally an awesome thing to have, but at the same time, don't treat that person as better than yourself. In almost any normal circumstance, chances are you're capable of being equally as skilled, fast, motivational, talented, what have you; as the person in the spotlight. I think VIP's kind of do a lot to make us discredit ourselves at the very same time as us admire what it is that they do.

Now this obviously doesn't apply to everyone, but for example, anyone who has less than stellar self confidence can easily find themselves in doubt of their own inner abilities when comparing themselves to a personal hero. Take for instance myself, I'm someone who wants to pursue a career at producing videos, yet I've very bluntly declared that "I want to stay the fuck away from Hollywood because I'm no where near on that level." Who says that's true? Well, Guy Ritchie, and Chris Nolan, and James Cameron, and Steven Soderbergh. Well, they didn't actually say it, but they implied it with the masterful works of art they've brought us. See what I'm getting at? For someone like me, I look at an amazing film, and think "Damn, that was such an amazing movie, I could never do anything like that."

The whole thing is a double edged sword though because I'd rather live in a world with movies such as Memento, Snatch, Terminator 2, and Ocean's Eleven, and be inspired/disheartened at the same time, than live in a boring realm of monotony. I guess I(we) just need to work on taking it all with a grain of salt. Take it and flip it around: "I could never do something like that, but why would I want to, it was just done?"

I guess lastly I'd like to see how I react in a situation where I get to meet a VIP in a field of interest to me. I've met a decent chunk of VIPs before, in my line of work, but I've always just treated them as normal human beings, because that's pretty much what they are. I've never run into someone that I'd say could be a favorite actress, or director or creator of mine. So who knows, maybe if I were to run into Jeremy Clarkson, or Guy Ritchie or Ellen Page tomorrow, I'd lose my composure and negate everything I just said.