the life of Sir Hopkins
The number of books in my digital library that have been started but not finished is too numerous to count. But when the rare text with the capacity to hold my attention wanders along, it typically gets gobbled up within a day or two. Such is the case with Anthony Hopkins' newly released memoir, ‘We Did Ok, Kid’.
What made me devour this book?
The first thing that hooked me was his skillful ability to tell his story in a way that somehow encompasses the complexity of being human – weaving in the good, the bad, the light, and the dark of his life. I don't trust a memoirist who only shares rose-colored stories. It's not honest or true. What I found even more compelling is the fact that, at this stage in life, he seems to have found acceptance of all his sides, which I find aspirational.
What I appreciated even more were his deep contradictions regarding his worldview, presented in earnest and seemingly without internal conflict. I'm always looking for examples of wise people who're able to hold seemingly opposite truths at the same time.
Sir Hopkins believes that his life is none of his business. He says he's never made a decision, feeling that life has just moved him along from one thing to the next. At the same time, he has been relentless in his career/art pursuits for decades, propelled by a decision he made in his youth to prove his naysayers wrong. He believes that success is just as inevitable as failure, and displays conscious decision-making regarding which thoughts he allows to dictate his movements. All of this is underscored with a profound awareness (which occurred to him as a little boy of only four) of the death that awaits him at the end of the trail.
The contradiction between feeling life is out of his hands, but also in his hands at the same time. Plus, death’s constant presence behind him, always pushing him more fully into the hands of Life. These are the two primary paradoxes I've arrived at as well, but I still struggle to find my way in the space between them.
Sir Hopkins has lived nearly twice as long as I, and seems to have found his way of navigating the space between these wild contradictions. This is what lingers in the core of my being after reading his memoir.
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