A few months ago, my mom and decided to go to a studio that has a paint and wine type of deal. You look at their online calendar to find a painting you like and sign up for it. A lot of times people get wine or beer to enjoy while painting but my mom and I decided to skip that part and just paint. They walk you through the steps of painting the piece and at the end of the time period, you've got yourself a completed painting! Starry Night proved to be far more challenging than either my mom or I expected and neither one of us was thrilled with the results. We decided that if we combined our two paintings, it might actually look halfway decent. Guess I better cancel any plans I had of being a famous painter!
But the time painting got my mom curious about Van Gogh's piece and wanting to try again so we started looking for other places in town that might also teach a class to paint Starry Night. We found another place that offered a slightly different version of the painting but ended up getting distracted by some of the other paintings offered. Now, my parents are not Doctor Who fans. I think I got them to watch the very first episode of the reboot with Billy Piper and Christopher Eccleston and that was it. But with my mom's curiosity of the painting, I decided to get her and my dad to watch the episode about Van Gogh. They both enjoyed it and I was again struck by just how much I loved this episode and really appreciated the writing of the episode, the acting, and just everything about it.
It also got me thinking (spoilers!) about how wonderful it would have been if someone could have done what the Doctor did and bring Van Gogh to the present time to see just how deeply appreciated his art is and what an impact it's had on people. I'd like to believe it would have given him hope to see that his work is considered anything but worthless in this day and age. And I have to wonder if that would have changed things for him. While it didn't in the episode, in real life would it have given him inspiration to continue living and painting and not succumb to his depression or would it have been an added weight on his shoulders, only worsening his depression?
And what about the rest of us, those of us who go through life and don't think we contribute anything useful? What if the things we perceive as trash, as worthless in our lives will make all the difference for future generations? I've always struggled with feeling invisible, with feeling that I didn't fit in with the crowd. A part of why I wanted to become an actress was so that I could be somebody, to not feel invisible anymore, to leave my mark in history so that I wouldn't be forgotten. I wanted to be someone important. Having given up that dream at this point and instead focused on a career as a vet tech, I'm fully aware that this isn't a career that's going to make me famous. I'm not going to become a household name. But I think I can do a lot more good with this career than I ever could as an actress, even if it is on smaller scale. And while I might not consider my work something to put in the history books, who knows what the future will bring.
Everything we do during our time on earth has an impact on others whether that impact be big or small. No, the vast majority of us will likely not be remembered by history in a hundred plus years, but the impact we have on others can last for a lifetime. We have an impact on the world simply by existing, but it's up to us for the most part to decide if that impact is positive or negative. We all matter in our own ways, no one is unimportant. Even the people we don't like or don't agree with matter. While Doctor Who might be a fun fictional tv show, there are important lessons scattered throughout, words like, "There's no such thing as an ordinary human." And one of my personal favorites: "Do you know, in 900 years of time and space, I've never met anyone who wasn't important before." We all matter, we're all important. Never forget that.
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