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Topic: Rejection (11/15/04)
TITLE: Pink Slips and Green Rooms By Kenny Paul Clarkson 11/15/04 |
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The thought occurred to me when I was sitting in the green room of the LeSea Broadcasting studio in South Bend, Indiana.
The opportunity was enormous. My ten minutes would be broadcast world-wide by the nation’s third largest Christian television network. The sales of my book on Amazon.com would surely soar.
Did I say “would?”
I should have said, “would have … if I’d been on time.”
Having done a half-dozen interviews with TBN affiliates around the Midwest, I had become accustomed to arriving at the studios early; one hour before air-time was not unreasonable. The cameras start rolling at eleven in the morning? I’d be there no later than ten.
But this morning was different. I was on the road by 5 a.m. and arrived in St. Joseph County by eight. 8:30 found me pulling in the network’s parking lot. I’ll just sop by, I told myself, to let them know I’m in town.
The receptionist offered a peculiar look and called the producer. She blinked. “The Harvest Show airs at 8 a.m.,” she explained. Not 11 a.m. like the Praise the Lord programs to which I had grown accustomed.
I was disappointed.
The key word, here, is disappointed. The root is appointed. We have our appointments: our plans, our proposals; our expectations. And when not realized, those missed appointments become disappointments.
Not a problem, the producer told me. We’d tape the segment after the broadcast. It would be aired at a later date. All was not lost, just delayed.
I sat there waiting, thinking of the dozens of manuscripts I had mailed to every publisher in Sally’s book. I thought of all the white “pink” slips that came through. Rejections. Disappointments. Missed appointments. And when I finally did find a publisher, I begged out of the contract. Better to self publish, I decided.
Shortly after nine she came in. Made me sit in the make-up chair. Powdered my face ‘til I sneezed. “Open your eyes wide,” she said, then poked me with that spongy thing.
The interview went well and a few weeks later it was broadcast around the world.
Sales surged on Amazaon.com. But that would not have occurred had I been on time. I learned on my drive home that the first printing of my book had sold out. Had my interview aired live that morning, it would have been a missed opportunity.
(I also learned on my drive home that it is always wise to remove stage makeup before entering a truck stop. They don’t understand.)
Amazing, isn’t it, how providence takes our disappointments — our pink slips — and turns them into perfection. Indeed, our steps are ordered by the Lord.
And why do they call them green rooms? They’re never green.