Will Smith
we all know him
.
World-renowned actor, MC, TV host, producer, you name it, he has been a part of our lives for three decades. For those of my generation it is to The Prince of Bel Air, because that’s how we knew him, but in the years following the sitcom he made the leap to the big screen and starred in iconic films such as Independence Day, Bad Boys, Man In Black, films in which he almost always showed off-the-charts physical prowess, but he also starred in much more challenging films, such as The Pursuit of Happiness, Seven Souls or his latest film King Richard in which he plays the father of the Williams sisters. To see him on the screen, he does not age a day, but he is now over fifty years old, and this made him feel the need to sit down to write and try to recall events in his life that were significant to him and that he thought were interesting to read about. Thus was born a book – written in four hands with
Mark Manson
– which bears his name, “
Will
“, and in the Italian version also has a subtitle: “Will. The power of the will” ( will in English is actually said will, but in Italian this pun loses its effectiveness), published by Longanesi.
WHAT IT SAYS.
It is an autobiographical book in which he traces his entire life, recounting both hilarious episodes and extremely serious and delicate moments. The book starts with just one of these, revealing a grim family history of domestic violence in which Will, his siblings, and his mother lived, with a father who was stern and unsympathetic and who became violent and unrecognizable when he drank. He grew up with the fear of his father and the Need to build an alternative reality in which domestic violence would have no place, Will developed an out-of-the-blue imagination and in his teenage years came across-thanks to assuocuggino Paul-in rap and hip hop, which became visceral love and allowed him to make the leap to notoriety. From rapper to actor, the step would be a short one, although the two careers would never be separated and he knew how to make them often intertwine.
WHY AM I TALKING ABOUT IT ON RUNLOVERS?
Meanwhile, because I grew up with Will Smith and he kept me company at all stages of life, from carefree adolescence with The Prince to thoughtful adulthood with Seven Souls, and reading his book was a natural and practically obvious thing for me. Second, because the reading, besides being enjoyable and entertaining, is also full of episodes that can be translated into the municipality life of all of us (which will mean then Have a common life?) and in some ways in that of those who run and practice endurance sports. Then again, Will Smith is a man like everyone else, and even in his own life, though certainly very different from that of the vast majority of people, he has had doubts, crises, and rebirths. Like all of us, he had happy and difficult times, and like all of us, he was faced with problems that viewed from afar seemed insurmountable, but he was able to deal with them and move forward.
There is a point, right at the beginning of the book (this is a super spoiler eh) where he talks about a task assigned to him by his father when he was still a child :
building a wall
. That wall, seen from a distance, seemed impossible to build because it was too big and too complex for a child. His father, however, told him to focus not on the wall but on the individual brick. Here, I saw in this story a metaphor for long-distance running, with the Marathon being the wall to be built and the individual steps being the bricks to be used. Taken in its entirety, it seems like an incredible and absurd distance to go, but step by step, brick by brick, it is
whole other thing
.
Another point that I really liked (but the book is really full of very good parts) is near the end, in the last chapters, when she tells about her relationship with her children and how she discovered the importance of listening to feelings rather than goals. Transposed to my view of the Marathon (okay, maybe I don’t have all my marathon wheels in place) I read into it the message that yes, it is definitely nice to get an accomplishment and it will make us feel happy, but
If, on the other hand, one ran happy a priori, just for the sake of it.
?
Here, this is the
running idea that I have in mind
.
If before buying the book you want to get an idea of what you will find in it and the few lines I have written are not enough for you, it is possible to see a miniseries called The Best Shape of my Life – produced by Will Smith himself-which tells a little about his attempt to get back in shape and a little about writing the book.
You can find it here.
, it is in English but it is very simple and you can put subtitles if you want, and below you can see the trailer. Enjoy viewing, and happy reading!