A Good Slap in the Face

I had a great conversation with this chick I met recently.  She's a wonderful actress that I've mentioned in previous blogs, and just a great human being with a fantastic outlook on life that I truly admire.

Unbelievably, she was hit by a car right before an opening night performance a few months ago.  She was crossing the street on her way to the theater when an SUV bumped her.  She wasn't hit hard enough to get knocked down, but she described it as feeling as though she was thrown into a brick wall extremely hard.  Also unbelievably, the asshole who hit her as he was driving while on his fucking cell phone did not give her any of his information whatsoever.  He pulled over out of shock of course, and then split as soon as he saw that she was still on her feet.  What a guy.  She was obviously stunned and regretfully didn't have the presence of mind to take down his information.  She somehow convinced herself she was okay, and went on her way.

When she got to the theater, she called her boyfriend.  As she heard herself explaining what had just happened, she burst into tears.  But she managed to pull herself together and hide all of this from her cast mates and the stage manager, and ended up giving one of her best performances on her opening night.

Shortly thereafter, she woke up one morning and couldn't move.  The pain set in.  And it was bad.  It sickens me to think of how many actors can't afford health insurance preventing them from seeking medical care.  ***If you don't have health insurance, check out www.actorsfund.org.  There are also free medical clinics available to artists if you search around on-line.  In the words of Princes of Babylon, "If you don't have your health, then you ain't got shit."***  I am not certain if that was the reason why she avoided going to the hospital when this happened, or if it was because somewhere in her mind she was just in such complete denial.  Since then, she has been pursuing alternative therapies to address the pain, and did in fact get checked out to make sure there was no internal damage.

She explains this event as being a literal slap in the face from a higher power because this event and everything that has followed since has made her "finally wake up."  She went through a great phase of self-discovery, confronting, addressing, and resolving lifelong issues that she's been avoiding.  And her enlightenment is evident by her general outlook on life and her unshakable positive attitude.  And this is a woman who has lived through and survived more than most. 

At the moment, her acting career is in a lull.  But unlike most actors, she's totally okay with that because she accepts it as an opportunity to focus on herself, to experience LIFE knowing that it's those life experiences that she will need to draw upon when her career is back on the upswing again.  So in the meantime, she is reading, teaching, writing, exploring, absorbing, healing, and evolving.  Always evolving.

She is such an inspiration.  And I can't wait to see what she does next.

--Ming Ming

Comments

[Jim Todd]

Insightful. I'm a firm believer that there is no such thing as an "accident."

The universe is either trying to talk to us or we've simply physicalized a climax of internal strife.

I know people who believe they are simply "accident prone." Ha! Damn fools should ask themselves WHY.

Great post!

[B Helliom]

My comment is more on the pragmatic - as an actor w/out health insurance, I had to do a lot of research for best options when I had strep a few weeks ago. As frustrating as it was, I was glad I was getting the information for something as non-urgent as strep, so I have it if I have a true medical emergency. Bottom line: bookmark these sites, and pass them on to others -

http://www.med.nyu.edu/nycfreeclinic/patients/health_resources.html

http://www.healthylivingnyc.com/all_hospitals_and_clinics.php