The joywood scripts #2

Dear friend,

How has the past week been for you? Are you quite settled? Have you been busy orienting yourself, making friends, and reading the manual? Well, there is much room for learning and growth. I suppose you are probably feeling eager to jumpstart this career, just like any newcomer on any job. But it takes time to learn the ropes, so don't be too anxious, you will eventually come to know what you need to know.

Well, after a week or so, you may have noticed that this place is very cliquey. A good handful of people on your set are part of a clique called C. I am not sure if they have already made their moves on you. Or perhaps you have also heard of Y, another clique of equivalent popularly. These are the more prominent ones because they have grown so massive. In fact they are now able to come out with their own sets, so that they can have their little plays during the "off" days. Thus far, I have seen some of them make their own stage, out of planks of wood, bricks, cement or whatever they can get in this studio. They park it at the corridor and decorate it with fanciful neon lights, velvet red carpet, and a fantastic sound system to draw crowds and entice passer-bys.

But with all that said, I am by no means, trying to insinuate in you any ill feelings towards them. They are my friends too, and I find some of them truly congruent in their words and actions. To make a fair statement, I believe that most of these cliques are merely trying to please our producer and director, by "helping" him do his job. They have appointed certain outstanding people to become leaders of the clique. They write their own little scripts, put up their own performances. But sometimes it backfires because they only win hearts for themselves, instead of the one that they should really be "winning" for. And when somebody leaves their clique, they think that they have lost them forever, not realising that we are all still work in the same studio, on this same mega-production.

We are always in the play, regardless of whether we're on a set. We eat, sleep and work in the studio. And as long as we are in the studio, the guidelines that are given to us always apply. That is what matters most. Everything else is just peripheral. It bewilders me that things of peripheral importance have taken the centrestage. But if you would like to find out how or when this started, you can always refer to the manual, draw a parallel to some of the narratives, and make an intelligent guess.

Hence, there is no need to fret over the cliques. You can choose to join one, if you feel that it's helpful to your transition here, or you can choose not to. Never, under any circumstances, feel pressured to join. They may use all sort of curses on you. Do not feel threatened by them, because they have no control over you. It is our producer who calls all the shots, so their words cannot harm you.

It is good company we need, not good cliques. Now that I have met you, I hope that I may be a helpful companion to you.

I will be available to you, if you need me. Till then I remain,

Your faithful friend,
Joywood