Lin-Manuel Miranda is one of the special people featured on the Apple Plus series.
Have you seen the TV series “Dear…” on Apple Plus?
If you haven’t, I highly recommend it.
But even if you don’t have Apple +, the premise is worth discussing.
“Dear…” is inspired by the “Dear Apple” advertising campaign, where customers share stories about how Apple products have changed their lives. In the same vein, this docuseries features celebrities reading letters by people “whose lives have been changed through their work.” Each episode focuses on one celebrity.
So far, I’ve seen episodes featuring film director Spike Lee and Broadway impresario Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stevie Wonder, Gloria Steinem, gymnast Aly Raisman and Oprah Winfrey.
The premise is at once simple and beautiful: Our life’s’ work creates ripples.
Sometimes we see those ripples. Often times we don’t.
But the important part is to recognize that we all matter and what we put out into the world may impact people in profound ways.
If we are lucky, we hear from those we affect.
Those messages sustain us.
Those messages inspire us.
Those messages encourage more art and more creation. As a result, we have a chance to be better and do better and move forward. Those ripples we create matter. They matter a lot. They can and do create waves.
Exactly a year ago, I got Covid. I don’t know where I got the virus, but for me it was almost a lethal dose.
The virus that almost took my life, changed my life. As it has changed lives across the globe.
We are fragile beings; here today, gone tomorrow.
So today really matters. Our work matters. Our art matters and that art should be broadly defined.
Your art can be music, writing, teaching, running a business, volunteering or being the consummate friend, father, brother, mother, wife, leader.
There are opportunities every single day to make a difference. We can inspire or we can deflate, we can encourage or bully, we can love or hate.
Years ago, I chose to love. There are times where I have been able to do so and there are times when I have fallen woefully short.
But Covid, that dreaded virus ended up giving me a wonderful gift.
Let me explain.
From an early age, I was attracted to public service. My first expression of that art was journalism. I enjoyed telling the stories of the people in my community which was and still is Delray Beach.
I wrote about police officers and firefighters. I wrote about musicians and entrepreneurs. I wrote about community organizers and about people who dreamed about building a better community.
That work changed me.
Telling stories made me want to make my own stories and apply some of the ideas I had seen from a vast array of special people.
So I went into local politics with a few simple goals: leave the town better than I found it and support the people in my town doing good work.
I would judge my success or lack thereof by a single metric: at the end of my term in office– knowing I couldn’t please everyone–if I could look in the mirror and feel I had earned and kept the support of those doing good work in the community I would feel that I achieved my goal. If I lost the support of those investing, volunteering, building, connecting, protecting and educating I would have considered my term a failure.
The Dear…series celebrates people doing what I tried to do on a scale I can’t begin to fathom. The series celebrates inspiration.
Isn’t that wonderful?
Inspiration and aspiration is the oxygen of the world. If we aspire and inspire we can progress.
We need progress.
Progress is more than an app. It’s more than a viral Tik Tok video or a social media post that gets scores of likes.
All those things are fine but progress is writing a Broadway show that inspires young people to learn about our founding fathers.
Progress is a young Black director making movies that depict the Black experience in America and prompts us to ask questions and think about our beliefs. Progress is an Olympic gymnast whose courage in the face of abuse inspires others to speak out and raise awareness.
Each story in Dear honors those who inspire, but just as important the docuseries shines a light on those who found inspiration and made their own mark on the world.
Maya Angelou once said our legacy is what we do to inspire others. People will forget what we did, but they won’t forget how we made them feel. We can choose to make them feel good and we certainly have the power to damage them as well.
We all have the power to create a legacy, to inspire, motivate and empower others. It’s a choice. One we can make every day.
Thank you for sharing and inspiring Jeff. You remind me that this a karmic universe – and each of us matter – and mind, each other.
And thank you Peter for being the artist and mensch that you are.
Beautiful – poetry with words. A story to inspire and aspire. Your words can move mountains. As always
Awww. Thank you so much Diane. Coming from a terrific writer that really means a lot.