Lie to Me!…..

We all have our favorite TV or Radio shows that we watch or listen to regularly, whether they be a guilty pleasure, relaxation, passing time in the car etc…One of the best shows of the TV season was the Fox show “Lie to Me” and in the very intense season finale Dr. Cal Lightman played by Tim Roth said something that I can’t stop thinking about….

Lie To MeFirst of all, Lie to Me was one of the surprises of the season.  The Lightman group is hired by agencies and individuals to solve mysteries by finding out who is lying.  This is not just made up science but is based on the analysis of renowned psychologist Paul Ekman and his finding that: (Wikipedia)

facial expressions of emotion are not culturally determined, but universal to human culture

Intense drama, melding with present day figures and events plus Tim Roth whom in all of his portrayals, always gives me a sense of danger and that anything can happen when he’s on screen, an incredible talent!

At the very end of the season’s final episode Dr Lightman confronts his newest recruit Ria Torres who’s thinking of quitting because of personal reasons combined with her distrust in Lightman who ironically had to lie to her in order for her to help solve a case.  His response to her hit me like a lighting bolt:

You have a talent, it comes with sacrifice.
That talent? It doesn’t belong to just you anymore.

It begs the question, that if you have talent or a gift, does it belong to just you?  Do you have it to serve others and do you owe anything  just because you have that talent?  This is something that is highly personal and goes the core of my belief in that the purpose of a gift is that you have to give it, as well as receive it.  Yet this is my view for myself, I don’t pass judgment upon others who don’t feel the same way but only hope that others feel the same way as I do.  Organizations such as Orchestras are filled with talented people, and so it is up to all the stakeholders to offer the orchestra as a gift to their communities.  As examples this could be in the form of free concerts, education programming or even comping a couple who have been subscribing for 49 years but because of hard times no longer can afford tickets to attend their own 50th anniversary season.  If they were personal friends who couldn’t afford their actual 50th wedding anniversary, then we as friends would surely rally to help them celebrate wouldn’t we?  Organizations should do the same, I have seen examples of people not renewing tickets not because of quality of programming or performance, but because their loyalty was not reciprocated.  Let our collective talents help people by making our gift something we give in a case like that.  Doing this not only gives someone or an organization the potential to reap huge rewards in terms of support for the future, but also acting with conscience is in itself a huge reward.

As artists and organizations, we are often taught that it’s about us, what the community can do for us, how people can help us with patronage.  With so many charities helping to make people’s lives better, should we with our talent not be doing the same?  I say absolutely yes, what do you say?

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