Are you important?

"Mom, are you important?"

I almost answered in the negative but stopped myself and said, "Well, yes, but not because I have money or power. I am important to these people because I can tell them what I think about their work and if they need me, I can just be there to listen. Maybe, I can even be a friend because you know, friends are important. So, yes, I am important."

My 8 year old asked me this tonight after we watched a film in which three people I am acquainted with were a big part of. One provided accuracy of detail, the other the feminist viewpoint, and the other the original soundtrack. All three were also interviewed as part of the "extras" on the DVD that is to be sold.

As a favor to the musical genius, I was asked to review it and offer my personal opinion. He came in personally to bring me a copy and my daughter has seen him numerous times before. The other contributors/collaborators have been in and out of my office quite a bit and my daughter always seems to be fascinated by the conversations we have.

It tickles her pink to see people she knows as just people on the "big" screen doing their thing and sometimes, she even says as she rolls her eyes, "Mom, that's not how they really are." It will occasionally strike her as really weird and she'll ask me to turn off a movie if the person is playing someone dramatically different than who they really are.

My daughter also looks at me with a look of awe when I show her a few pieces that I have done and are either on websites or memorialized in other ways. I told her that being a mom and a "worker" as she puts it, does not limit you from doing things you enjoy or even just want to try once. In the course of pursuing those things I enjoy or trying things just once, I have met a multitude of talented people who I can thankfully say try to include me in their success as much as they recruited me for help along that path.

I told her that it is good for people like these to know that when the time comes that things slow down for them or even a respite in the rush of success, they have someone they can depend on for friendship. She says, "Mom, I hope I can be that important one day, too."