To Lucy Lawless:
Thank you for all the work you have done and everything you will still do in the future - on the screen and off the screen. Thank you for inspiring people all over the world and thank you for being a positive influence in my life.
The background for this post:
I was just reading a list about 100 things to do when you are sad and one of the points was to reach out to the people who inspire you but do not know that you exist. For me, blogging seems the only way to reach out in some way - in a way that the people who inspire me might not know about either even if I tried to get the link to my blog to them. If you aren't really lucky, it is hard to tell people how they inspire you in a way that they actually get to see. If I was a rich person, I could try to do some research about where my special people are at a certain time, hire a plane or a big advertisement space in a city and put a message on an "ad" or let a plane pull a message behind it. But lo! I am not rich, only rich in words and even they might not be of the best quality.
However, if writing this blog can help me to cheer up a little, it's worth it. There are many people who inspire me. I am 30 years old now (my birthday has come and gone recently) and of course you can't live a life without being inspired every now and then. One of my earliest influences was Michael Jackson - but I can't reach out to him because he is dead. A bit later, my next big influence was Tolkien - but he is also dead. I was also inspired by Miyamoto Musashi - dead as well. If we stay within the timeline of my big inspirations, then the next in line would be Lucy Lawless. And as she does have a Twitter account, I can at least try to let her know that she inspired me.
Lucy came into my life as Xena, the warrior princess. To be honest, I did not know much about Lucy when I watched Xena. I also did not have much interest in actors and actresses. I enjoyed watching movies and series. I had favourites, but I never was someone who over-indulged in merchandise and fandom. The passion I spent most money on was Japanese culture - but that's a different story.
Anyway, I learned more about Lucy Lawless when I got older and somehow ended up living in New Zealand - not evening realizing that Xena was NOT filmed in Greece but in New Zealand (I never bothered to check up on the locations when I was a teenager as I simply enjoyed the stories). The realization came after I visited Bethell's Beach, feeling like I somehow knew this place. And yes, it was a location used in Xena. So no wonder I felt like the place was familiar.
I think my interest in Lucy Lawless as a person - not as Xena - truly started when I first came to New Zealand (in 2005). I realized that she is a very interesting person and a woman people could easily see as a good role model. In a way she taught me that you do not have to be a strong warrior princess to be a good person. But I guess Xena also shows the same in the series: she also can be weak every now and then even though she doesn't particularly like being weak (my impression).
I was lucky enough to see Lucy Lawless live in concert in Auckland in 2012. But that's another story as well. Something that did not have the effect I had expected, but nevertheless, seeing her had an effect.
Like many of the other people who inspire me, Lucy inspires me to be the best person I can be without losing myself, without being unauthentic. There are many things I see in Lucy that I wish I could achieve as well - but at the moment I am far from being like her or being like Xena. I am more like a Xena that is just being pulled back into negativity and not trusting people.
So, I better get back to that list and see what else I can do today to cheer myself up a bit more!
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