Biography

Today I was asked to write a short, 150 word professional biography of myself for a publication. Believe it or not, it was really hard for me to do. (Have you ever had to do that? Seriously. Try it. I bet you’d be surprised at the difficultly level of summing yourself up in 150 words.) It’s rather serendipitous actually, because I’ve been thinking a lot about words used to describe me in the last few days (this is what happens when you spend *hours* writing resumes and cover letters…you start to run out of words you can use to describe yourself and your accomplishments and start to need new ones: hard-working leader with vast experience coordinating, and instructing, and organizing…things and stuff?)

As I stared blankly at the page today, trying to come up with the words that described who I am, I found myself constantly coming back to phrases not about who I am, but instead about what it is I do. Because let’s be honest, when people are asking you for your resume or a biography, they aren’t really asking you to describe who you are—what makes you tick, what makes you happy, what drives your being. They are *really* asking for you to outline your track record of accomplishments—what it is you have done, ticked off in list form so as to impress those who would be reading it. “Oh, she’s a director. I understand it now.” People need categories to make sense of things.

To take a break from the resumes, on Saturday I took myself on a movie date to watch the film “Eat, Pray, Love.” It was surprisingly good. Much more like the book than I thought it was going to be, actually. The book was one of my favorite reads of a few years back, and I’m always very afraid when they make books I like into movies, as the potential for sucking bigtime is generally pretty high. But this movie I found faithful to the book and easy to watch. This made me happy.

Yet even in my downtime, the movie time I had taken as to get away from writing resumes and cover letters, this question of self-description came up again. On one of the star’s legs of her journey, she and various other characters were having a conversation about how places and people could usually be summed up in one word. What was her word? What was your word? And then the star of the movie spends the rest of the movie trying to come up with her word. And then finally she does and it is quite touching and there is a collective, satisfied sigh from the members of the audience. And there is much rejoicing.

It struck me that I don’t think I have a word. And how does someone go about finding their word?

So because I am a byproduct of the computer age, and because I really had nothing better to do on a Saturday night, I did what any well educated women seeking enlightenment and greater insight about herself would do: I took a Facebook quiz. (Don’t even try to tell me you haven’t taken them. Of course you have. I bet you can tell me exactly what 80’s tune is your theme song, what breed of dog you are, and what cocktail best represents you as well.)

After several probing questions obviously designed by a genius (who couldn’t spell) about my favorite pet and favorite color and favorite element of the periodic chart, this obvious mental marvel sussed out that my one word description was simply: Calm. Apparently according to anonymous Facebook genius “X”, I am calm. My very simple, one word rebuttal to this conclusion: Incorrect. (Anybody have a Magic Eight Ball I can seek some clarity from over here?)

At any rate, I slowly gave up the ghost on trying to melt the whole of my person down to just one word (though perhaps you dear, readers would do a better job than me.) Then, I happened to remember that a few years back, J was mildly obsessed with a book that came out which asked movie stars and people from all famous walks of life to write their own life stories—their autobiography, in just five words. Perhaps, if I couldn’t come up with one word to describe me, I could come up with a five word phrase that captured the essence of me! Hurrah!

After hours of contemplation, I decided I was satisfied with “trying harder than you think” (because I am). And while I think that’s probably true generally, the fact that I had just spent a considerable amount of time stumbling through this little project *may* just have tipped the scale in that whole “trying hard” mindset. At any other time, my biography might just as easily have read, “I’m definitely laughing at you” or “Trying to figure things out” or “I love pizza and wine.” I digress. This is a game that could go on literally for hours.

And so, after my movie-Facebook- break, I went back again to the resumes, hoping that I had gained some insight from these exercises. This, my friends, was a bust. Because at that point in the evening, a beer in hand, my brain basically mushy for the evening, I found myself writing things like “I like kids. I’m good with details. I want you to hire me. Please.” Clearly, it was time for me to put away the computer for the evening and get lost in some television.

Now, if a television show could be a religion, I have to tell you that I would be a staunchly practicing West Wingian. And while accepting Aaron Sorkin into your life isn’t quite a religious experience, to me, it’s been pretty darn close. For those of you who have not yet opened your heart to the work of Aaron Sorkin, (“A Few Good Men”, “The American President”, “Sports Night” and “The West Wing” are merely my personal highlight list) I so desperately entreat you to do so. He is our century’s Shakespeare, his writing funny and honest and so smart. He is master and commander of the English language. His writing is music- it has a timbre and a rhythm and a meter, each word chosen carefully for the sound it makes and the emotion it evokes.

And so, as I soo often do when I want to relax, I popped in a West Wing DVD and got lost in the language. I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the disc I picked up, but I think it was divine intervention: The episode about the first (and only) presidential debate of Bartlet’s first term, nestled nicely inside of Season Three, began to play. The episode is entitled “Game On” and is spent primarily with his staff telling Bartlet (the President of my dreams…Thank you Aaron Sorkin and Martin Sheen) that he is no good with the “ten word answer.” He likes to talk too much. He is terrible with the sound-bites of the presidency. He must learn summary statements and catch phrases because people will never listen to him otherwise! (How sound-bites have ruined mankind is a soapbox of mine for another day.)

At debate time the President is faced with an opponent who is exactly the opposite. Great with the sound-bites…the ten word answers are his wheel house. After hearing the short, ten word answer on taxes from his opponent, Martin Sheen pauses and then as President Bartlet says the following:

Bartlet: There it is. That's the ten word answer my staff's been looking for for two weeks. There it is. Ten-word answers can kill you in political campaigns. They're the tip of the sword. Here's my question: What are the next ten words of your answer? Your taxes are too high? So are mine. Give me the next ten words. How are we going to do it? Give me ten after that, I'll drop out of the race right now. Every once in a while... every once in a while, there's a day with an absolute right and an absolute wrong, but those days almost always include body counts. Other than that, there aren't very many unnuanced moments in leading a country that's way too big for ten words...

I couldn’t help but smile when I heard this again, one of my favorite monologues from the show. Why are we always trying to sum up ourselves and other people into one word…or five words…or ten words? Aren’t humans more nuanced than that? Don’t we deserve all the words we can possibly get? It bothered me to think that we have started trying to sum up people with sound-bites and one-word descriptions. He’s the smart one. She’s the pretty one. They’re the rich ones. He’s a teacher. She’s a scholar. He’s a writer. It just seems so limiting, and can’t possibly tell a person’s true story.

Life, it seems to me, is all about the nuances. The small moments and intricate details and ideas that we each have and bring to one another are what we should spend our time embracing. We’re all way too complicated for ten words, and that’s a beautiful thing. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to convey all that I’m about in a 150 word bio about the jobs I’ve held, or on a resume or a cover letter. I guess I have to try. But I think that at the end of the day, we should stop trying to boil life down to bullets, and instead enjoy all the words we can get our hands on. Because that’s where the story lives.