Christmas letters

My Mom writes a letter every year for the Christmas card she sends out to family and friends. I learned a long time ago that I need to write what my year has been like and submit it to her to include in the Christmas letter. Why? Because her view of my life is profoundly different than my view of my life. Her view of my life is down right depressing. It makes it sound like I'm banging my head against the walls here in Hollywood and getting nowhere. One year I didn't get a chance to give her my version of my life, and my friend Terry asked, "Did you read your parents letter this year?" No, I didn't but got a little pissed off after I did. It sounded like I lost all hope and had a gun in my mouth.

I admit that I do have flat spots on my cranium, but it's not all as futile as my Mom writes. She loves me and doesn't like to see me struggle, but it's the struggle that makes the successes sweeter. Even the small wins are good to have. The following is my portion of this years letter.

"In January Brad went backpacking around New Zealand and Australia for 18 days. He bungy jumped of a bridge and hiked a glacier in New Zealand; and went scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef in Austraila. Brad had 2 Verizon commercials running on cable this year and he did a one man show about the physicist Richard Feynman called QED. Now he is venturing into the world of voice over."

Short. Sweet. Hopeful. Life is difficult, but if everything is handed to you, you don't value it.

I hunger, and I struggle.