Cary Grant

At age 80, Cary Grant said "I've become the person I wanted to be." His eyes were equal, warm, the soul showing through, filled with laughter. In younger pictures the eyes were unequal: one looked straight ahead, wide, the other looked own, closed. He pursued the person he wanted to be all those years. The thing is, I don't think at first he knew who that person was. Do most of us? It seems to me that becoming the person he wanted to be was the alpha and omega of his life. He wanted to be an actor and became one. He wanted to become a really good actor, and he did that too. But it wasn't until he made The Awful Truth that he stumbled on the person he wanted to be, a piece of him anyway. He discovered he could see the humor and absurdity when others around him were frozen in the usual way of seeing.

That seems to be a big part of the person I want to be, or all of us want to be. It's someone who is alive to what he or she really cares about no matter what anyone else wants or is doing, and expresses it, enjoys it.

I'm stumbling on pieces of who I want to be. Today when I was kind to a complete stranger and it took some effort--a postal clerk, made her laugh, instead of fretting about the time or waiting for her to be kind to me. Grant-like. some charm, some humor, some serenity in the midst of life's annoyances.