Tuesday, November 10, 2009

affinity fingerprints

Some people love books. They discover an author they like, and know that they must read everything the author ever wrote.
Some people love movies. They can tell you who played the little sister in TANGO & CASH, even though they've never seen it.
Some people love sports. They can tell you what position Danny White played before taking over at quarterback.
Some people love music. They can tell you Roy Harper's connections to Floyd, Zeppelin, the Who, and James Paul McCartney, too.
Some people love TV. They can name every series Robert Urich starred in.
Some people love many things. Like me.
Living in a country of 300 million, trying to wrap your mind around a number like that, it's fair to say that none of us are particularly unique. People like me are probably more a dime a dozen than i'd like to admit...though there are times when i'd give all my dimes for just one of them dozen.
Physically, it's fair to say that i've never met someone who looks like me. Even within my family, my looks are so singular that i've always been prepared for the ol' orphan-on-a-doorstep story. Although once every few years someone will tell me they spotted my double. One time my Mom was able to snap a photo of one of these doppelgangers, in Russia. She was absolutely right, and it was frankly a little disturbing.
More often, i think about my uniqueness in terms of personality. For example, i've thought about the acting roles i've played. An actor probably has to do more shows than they realize, before having a resume that is one-of-a-kind. After doing one show, there are probably millions of others who have acted in just that one. After two shows, there are perhaps hundreds of thousands who still have an identical resume. After three or four, that number is in the tens of thousands. After five or six, that number is maybe in the thousands. Is seven or eight enough to put you in the company of only hundreds? Maybe. But you've still got the tens and the ones to navigate before you're...unique!
I've done eighty or so shows, so statistically i should have passed the uniqueness threshold years ago. I can in fact guarantee it, for i've done original plays and films. Ergo, there has never been another actor in the history of the WORLD with a resume identical to mine.
The need to be different is part of the human psyche. Studies have shown that people who live in housing units indistinguishable from their neighbors, suffer adverse psychological affects.
So in a world of six billion, the knowledge that no actor has ever had my career is a source of some comfort. My resume becomes my unique fingerprint. Heck, i'd be ecstatic to learn how many other actors in the world have played both Oscar and Felix. I've never heard of another...but statistically, there have to be some. Right? I think of how cool it would be to suddenly have all of us zapped into a room together.
We each collect our own personality "fingerprints" over our lifetimes, many of them tied into our likes and dislikes. The combination of foods we like, or teams, or authors...each one of these can contribute to our sense of uniqueness. Often the key to compatibility lies not in beliefs, but in affinities. If you have two people whose political beliefs are alike, and two people who love the same music, which pair do you think has better odds of becoming friends?
Just as it's exciting to meet an actor whose resume resembles mine (the closer the match, the greater the excitement), so is it exciting to meet someone who has an affinity fingerprint that resembles mine.
I offer one fingerprint...the television shows i've loved, in approximate order. I mean deep inside, couldn't get enough of, loved loved loved: THE LITTLE RASCALS, TARZAN (Ron Ely), STAR TREK, CAROL BURNETT, THE MUPPET SHOW, M*A*S*H, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, STARSTUFF, BUCK ROGERS, CARSON, MATCH GAME, STAR BLAZERS, HILL STREET BLUES, SOAP, MONTY PYTHON, MST 3000, WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY?, AFV, CHAPELLE'S SHOW, MXC, WEST WING, STUDIO 60.
Even in a world of six billion, i'd call it long odds that i'll ever meet someone with the same fingerprint. It would be amazing and wonderful, but a similar fingerprint is cause for happiness enough.

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