Marian Seldes: Superpower
"We can wake up every day and wish the absolute best for everyone and everything."
Marian Seldes was an Obie judge for the theatre season of1997-98, and because Garson Kanin was not always well enough to accompany her, I would be her “date.” After one play—Joe Calarco’s wonderful R&J—Marian and I walked toward her Central Park South home. “I need to stop here,” Marian said, and we went into a drugstore on Broadway and 57th Street. Three people in the store, including the woman at the pharmacy desk, greeted Marian by name, asked how she was doing. Marian knew their names, asked about their families, and wished them well. It was eleven-thirty or so at night, and these were the night-shift people who most often waited on her when she was getting home after a play or a night out. None of them knew that Marian Seldes was an actress. None of them knew who Garson Kanin was, other than the man whose medications Marian was picking up. Marian did this everywhere she went. I asked her about it.
All of us have a superpower, and it is consistent and inviolable. Each and every one of us can make the world a better place—the world we most want—inch by inch, act by act, day by day. I know that the world works better if I’m kind. If I’m kind and genuine, people tend to be kind and genuine toward me.
I want the best for everyone. I also know that all of us are more than what we do or where we are right now. I don’t have to know the details: I just know it. All of those jobs you had: You loved them, right? I gave you recommendations for them, happily. You did them; I came to see you in the stores and the shops. But it wasn’t all that you were or all that you did. It was what you did to support yourself and save some money so you could take some time off and get back to writing and talking to people. How do I know what that woman in the pharmacy is dreaming of and working toward? The lovely lady at the coffee shop? The staff at the theatres? What are their dreams? What is the wonderful world they’re dreaming of? I can help them build it. So can you. So can all of us.
Our superpower is that we can bring kindness and wonder into the world right this minute, and then every minute afterward. This power has been given to all of us. We can wake up every day and wish the absolute best for everyone and everything. And the wonder appears.
This conversation took place in 1998.