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God’s Mercy

I am blogging on my blackberry. I’m home after the performance (and too much wine!) and an extraordinary hour after the show backstage with Gloria Steinem (her 2nd time seeing it. She saw it at the first preview), Christine Lahti, and Scott Peacock. Scott is the award winning chef at the Decatur, Ga restaurant, Watershed, owned by the Indigo Girls. Scott is a very close friend of mine. He’ll be back on opening night with another close friend, Robin Laughlin, who I just introduced him to. (I knew they were meant to be buddies). It made me so happy to sit in my dressing room with Gloria, Christine and Scott, talking about the play and catching up on life. Christine’s in NY for 4 days to see 6 plays. She just saw “God of Carnage” which she adored. It is always profound to have Gloria weigh in on anything, especially a play like “33 Variations.” All 3 of them were really moved by it–and none of them are of the “B.S. Variety.” Know what I mean?

I want to comment on a couple of comment/questions about the blog.

One comment asked about the meaning of the “song the cast all sings together” toward the play’s end.” We are singing the “Kyrie Elyeison” vocal chorus in Beethoven’s “Missa”–his famous Mass. It is a plea to god for mercy.” If you saw the play, you will understand why, at that moment, both me and my family/ colleagues as well as Beethoven’s need to ask for God’s mercy.

There was another question I wanted to address but I can’t remember and I’m too tired to look up the comments.

I will soon be in bed watching the 2-hour special of “Brothers and Sisters.” I adore Sally Field–and Gloria, and Christine and Scott. I am so lucky to have such good friends. But you know what age has taught me? One must be intentional about friendship. We are all so busy. We must really make an effort to lovingly stay in touch with those we want to be friends with.

Ahhhhhh. I just remembered the other comment I wanted to comment on: someone asked if I intended to keep blogging once the play is over. That’s a tough one. I am enjoying blogging and receiving the instant feedback. But there is something about blogging that slightly disturbs me. It has to do with its effect on ego.

I can’t get into this now, but over the coming months I have to give this ego issue some thought. Maybe I can ellicit your thoughts on this as well.

See you next time.

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76 Comments

  1. Hello Jane,:-)
    What an honor to communicate with you.I am a BOOMER who admired you way back when. And YES I too am looking forward to Brothers and Sisters. Sally is always wonderful,isn’t she? Keep on being YOU JANE ! Thx!

  2. Oh you should really keep blogging! I think it’s wonderful that you give everyone a chance to see who you really are…without having to hear it through the news or inside edition. This way we know that everything that is said is coming directly from you and that it’s all true.

  3. Jane I’m a News Anchor in Ct. and am a trustee for the soon to open Katharine Hepburn Theater. Are you interested?
    I would love to talk to you.

  4. I’ll be interested in hearing what your ego issue is, since I think you’re a thoughtful and interesting person, and I look forward to your blogs.

  5. I will be sad if you don’t continue to blog, but I respect whatever decision you make.

  6. Hi Jane.

    I’m an Atlanta. Love Watershed. Used to work for a local entertainment paper and I interviewed them when it opened.

    I’ve just started reading your blog and it’s very interesting. I love the “behind the scenes” info. I hope you continue to do so even when the play is over.

    I saw you on The View, watched it after reading you’d be on it. You look great. I kept thinking how you felt but you came across like you were fine.

    I am getting ready to settle in and watch Brothers and Sisters as well. LOVE the show.

    Tricia

  7. Hi Jane! In your blog when you said “We are all so busy. We must really make an effort to lovingly stay in touch with those we want to be friends with.” It really said something to me. Sure, we all do that. When you’re friends with somebody you always find time for them no matter what. In a way, that is what you do for us here on your blog. You don’t know all of us but you care enough to blog every night. You do make an effort lovingly to stay in touch. Even when you are at your busiest, working on the play. And as fans, I’m sure I don’t speak alone when I say, it is really appreciated. Maybe it’s just that i’m 15-years-old and am constantly on websites like Myspace, Facebook snd Twitter, but your blog is the only blog that to me is honest. I myself check your blog everyday. It always keeps my interest and makes me laugh. You are one of the few people who aren’t afraid to be honest. Your book has said it all and your blog as well. I hope you know how wonderful you are to your fans and how much we love you. Thank you for being the one and only Jane Fonda!

    Kelsey

    PS: There was a piece in my town’s paper today on you and “33 Variations.” It had great things to say and mentioned how great you look for your age! Just wanted you to know. 😉

  8. 1) It’s lots quicker to Tweet a message on Twitter. 2) There’s the added benefit of seeing random thoughts of a huge number of people all over the world (at all times of day and night). 3) And there’s the fun of seeing if you can fit a thought into 140 characters before sending it off.

  9. Thank you for an inspirational performance. you and the cast were excellent this Sunday afternoon.

    & yes, we walked out with Gloria Steinem. The debt of gratitude all of us in this country owe to both of you is immense.

    It must be so difficult for you to portray an ALS patient each evening. My wife, Kathi Maschhoff, MD PhD CHOP neonatology, and I formed the biotech company, Mitergy, to cure ALS and related diseases marked by premature cell death, such as PD and heart failure due to chemotherapy. The same underlying mechanism is triggered, that being mitochondrial energy-loss and apoptotic pathology. Our mitochondrial therapeutics will be tested within the next year.

    Best regards and thank you,
    Paul

    Paul Anziano, PhD
    President/CSO
    Mitergy, LLC
    anziano@mitergy.com

    Adjunct Professor
    Lankenau Institute for Medical Research
    100 Lancaster Ave
    Wynnewood, PA 19096

    o 267-259-6451
    c 215-205-0465

  10. It would be great to continue blogging during the run of the show. Would like to hear how your character continues to grow and what choices that you have made so far have changed.

  11. Hey Ms Fonda,
    I thoroughly enjoy your blog. Of course it is a glimpse into your life, and what it means to be preparing for a play. But, we all learn from each other-whatever obstacles or joy you face on a daily basis, most of us have been there also. Your response gives us impetus to think about what ours might be in the same circumstances. Blogging is very personal and you give us a glimpse of how you would like to be perceived. It also gives us a glimpse of your wisdom. And with blogging, we meet the real you.
    You appear to me as a wise woman who has lived her life to the fullest. You have seen your demons and met most of them. Thank you for sharing. Pris

  12. I love reading your blog, Jane. And I hope you will continue it, after the show closes.
    I am an actor in Toronto. I find it amazing that you can blog in your dressing room, right before a show, and at intermission. I could never do that. I guess I worry a lot before I go on stage.
    Thanks so much for sharing your return to Broadway experience with all of us.

  13. Jane, it’s a joy to read your blogging as you prepare to open your show. It’s a great new way to communicate with a lot of people at once, and if your ego is saying, “I enjoy this,” then that’s a good thing. There might be an element of power or something that feeds the ego, but what’s wrong with that?!

    I met you at a rally in the early 70s when I was working in a Detroit law firm with a lawyer who knew your then-husband, Tom Hayden. I later waited on you at a NYC theater-district restaurant, Ted Hook’s Backstage, in the early 80s.

    You’ve been my favorite film actress for a long time, and I look forward to seeing you in this play later this month. I’m elated that you’re back on Broadway.

  14. Please don’t think about your blog and instant feedback and your ego. Whatever you are taking for yourself is THANKS from us, not vainglory. You have spent your entire life teaching us, blessing us with your availability, blessing us with the wisdom of your considered voyage, and to be able to continue to share this voyage with you at the speed which life is blessing us is a classroom none of us imagined but one which has been presented to us and I encourage you, as one of your oldest pupils (LOL), to continue to keep our classes in session. My love to you, SisterWoman, always and all ways.

  15. As a trained visual Artist and media specialist ,variation is the process of growth.
    I taught a graduate level course in Virtual Reality ,the problems I had with the student s
    was learning what was real. You have understand real before you could create a virtual reality. I think that the ego of the students were not ready to make that step of self discovery, graduate student rarely are.

  16. sounds like catching up with friends and drinking wine has made you a little mellow tonight. i agree it is so important to stay in touch with friends, those we want as our friends. nothing like a friend in this world. in response to your uncertainty about blogging when the play concludes . it is somewhat an intimate process that one exposes to the world but these seem to be the times we’re in. your decision i am sure will be one of great thought and should you decide to stop blogging when the show finishes its run ( i have a hunch the engagement will be extended) perhaps you can resume blogging with your new venture whatever it may be. perhaps a new movie role will inspire you to let us in on that process. hope you’re enjoying brothers & sisters tonight. sally rocks! can’t wait to see the play

  17. Long time fan. Love you. Fell asleep last night reading the most delicious book about George Plimpton. Since you’re in a New York -state-of-mind and he was Mr. NYC, I was wondering if you two knew each other? Date? I swear it refererenced your name as one of the many.

  18. Jane you are truly one amazing women, I too had to much wine today and also watched the 2 hour special of “Brothers and Sisters.”

    What did you think of it? i thought it was well put together, I’m glad rob low character is still alive 😀

    Jane, i think you should keep blogging, its nice to see a well actress celebrity so honest and open and kind, and this blog thing you have done is incredible.

    Take care Jane, and keep writing.

    <3
    love one of many fans
    Ella.

  19. Dear Ms Fonda
    Two things – I’ve just finished reading your memoir – loved it – you have indirectly been a great influence on my life in many ways. I still have the double album long playing record of the Jane Fonda Workout!
    Secondly, I saw your appearance on The View and fascinated to hear about the play – will you bring it to Australia??
    My thoughts and prayers with you and your family. Best wishes..Clara, Melbourne Australia

  20. When we can blog on accordions there will more music in the air !

  21. I have always known you were a wonderful actress. Your blog has made me realize you are a wonderful person in your real life. Again, I am enjoying the comments.

  22. I’ve read many, many, MANY blogs in the 5-1/2 years since I took it up–you write a truly great blog. And I say that blogger to blogger. For ME (because blogging is such a personal medium), I’m only happy doing it if I’m doing it for myself. That doesn’t mean I don’t like comments or feedback–just that I don’t write for my readers. I’ve had a few blogs over the years, and I stepped away from one because I realized I’d allowed myself to get penned in by what I perceived others’ expectations of me to be…and resentful obligation isn’t a very happy place to be writing from. 😉 Sometimes life off the blog intercedes, and new bloggers may fear that if they don’t continue doing it regularly, they’ll lose the readership they’ve built up. What I’ve found is that once those connections have been made over time, they’re there. That’s what makes the blogging community such a wonderful place–the support one can experience here. So maybe after your 5-month run, you feel like taking a little blogging break…if you do, fear not…your readership will return when you’re ready for them again. 🙂

  23. Congratulations and many thanks for a profoundly moving performance; it’s no wonder you were drawn to this piece – its grace, complexity and significance demand our attention…we recently lost a friend in the theatrical community to ALS, and the dignity and humanity of your performance will remain a testimony to her courage…thanks for continuing to make such important choices…

  24. Hi Jane

    I really enjoy reading your blog..they are so truthful and honest.. i just got back from having dinner with friends and a movie saw the reade… and it is true friendship is so important.. A friend told me years ago that it’s not the quantity of friends it’s the quality and i must say the frienndships i have taken years to develope to make them pure and truthful..i writing from vancouver BC it is a beautiful evening . and i’m a terrible speller have a good evening

    Bruce

  25. “Ego” that counterproductive word. I can’t wait for you to elaborate on this topic. Thanks for sharing your thoughts to those of us who care. I respect and look forward to your wisdom and lighthearted funny thoughts. Big kudos to you for embracing social media and technology.

  26. Jane,
    What a twist on Brothers and Sisters.

    Jane,
    You have great friends because you are a great friend. You make them a priority in your life,and give them what we all need, Unconditional Love, and Support. Besides that who can resist your essence.
    As for the ego effect, everyone with your extraordinary gifts must be aware of it rearing it’s head, but you seem too centered for that. Yet as in all things follow your heart.

  27. Blogging and Ego,

    I would suggest that your openess and sharing on your blog is the complete opposite of ego.

    Enjoying your posts immensley, best wishes for the production.

  28. Howlo again, Ms. Fonda! ^..^ My best paw-regards to you and to Tulea. Woo-oof!

    I’d like to comment on the “ego issue” you mention while musing about whether to continue blogging after your play is over. Pawleeze don’t be put off by the fact that I’m a Welsh Corgi. I think hard to come up with my pawspectives on things.

    I see that your blog is valuable to people. I can tell this by the quality and sincerity of what you write and how people respond in their comments. I watch the corners of my dog-ma’s mouth go up and her brow soften when she reads your blog. If you google around, you’ll see that other people adore your blog. You’ll find great reviews! What an exceptionally pawsitive response.

    Being valuable to others is so impawtant — not to ego, but to that “giving back” thing, that karma thing. I think it’s about continuing to make the world a better place the way people say you’ve always done. (My dog-ma has a long memory and has told me a lot.)

    What I’m saying, and I hope I don’t sound too forward here, is that you can do so much for others by continuing your blog. It doesn’t have to be daily, because it’s about quality, not quantity. It’s about the way you bring people together and generously give credit where it’s due. I sense that people get warmth and validation and strength from your writing, and this is what we all really need.

    Woof thanks fur reading this. Arfully gratefully yours, Tilin

  29. Dear Jane,

    Illicit thoughts before bedtime are perfectly appropriate, and I’m sure you inspire such thoughts in all the men who enjoy your work as an actor but also admire your beauty and intelligence as a woman.

    But in the context of your blog, you meant “elicit” of course.

    Thanks for the extraordinary insights and openheartedness in your memoir, which I read in hardcover when it came out. I look forward to seeing 33 Variations when next in NY (I’m a New Yorker who happily lives in Venice Beach), since I know Rich Willis who will secure a ticket. Keep enjoying your return to the stage. Nothing like live theater to stir the blood of both players and audience!

  30. Hi Jane, so glad to see you are a Brothers & Sisters fan too! Have been following your blog since I saw you on The View, and it reminds me once again what an incredible inspiration you are (even if you’ve heard that before!). You’re not afraid to put yourself out there and to try new things, to keep learning and growing, and to make the world a better place. I’m 10 years younger and wish I had your focus and energy! So, thank you for continuing to be a great role model and for allowing us to share your life and unique perspective. Blessings, Ann from Colorado.

  31. Ms. Fonda! I was at the show yesterday afternoon, seated 2 seats away from Gloria and Christine. What a thrill! I attended with my friend and mentor Linda, who is 60 and has versed me on so many issues of the past (I am 33).

    I listened to the audio tape version of your autobiography about a year ago — that has also been inspirational for me.

    I got the chills yesterday watching you on the stage and enjoying such a wonderful production. You are gorgeous and the whole of your beauty is cumulative. There is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The force of character is cumulative. The force of character is cumulative. All the foregone days of virtue work their health into this.” I think beauty works that way too.

    Please keep blogging if you are so inclined. Think about the message of the play … the middle thoughts, the inspiration that lead us to creating beauty, before technique mars it. More of your voice … in the middle moments … would be lovely.

  32. I ope you keep blogging as it is great to get your insight.I saw 33 Variations on Wednesday afternoon,Feb 18th and loved it.The comments on stopping time and seeing,soaking in minutiae(spelling?) and gaining perspective continue to move me.Keep going and I shall try myself.

  33. Great blog today. I lived in Atlanta for a while, and always enjoyed Scott Peacock’s wonderful food. I also loved the way he took care of Edna Lewis, another great chef. I hope you were able to know her too.

    I too have wondered if you would continue the blog after the show. I’ve become addicted to it, and think it would make a great book.
    Bill

  34. I like the substitution of “illicit” for “elicit.”

  35. I’m so curious to hear your thoughts on the ego issue, Jane. You might enjoy a book written by a friend of mine that’s due out this summer, but I bet you can get an advance copy– I’m sure they’d love to have your views on it. It’s called “Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters”, by Scott Rosenberg. He’s getting into some of the issues I’ll bet you are wrestling with here.

    For what it’s worth, I’m really enjoying your writing here and I hope you will continue.

  36. I don’t think your blog is about your ego. Sure you’re a famous actress and that’s what got us interested in the first place. But what keeps us coming back is what you have to say. I don’t think you’re stroking your ego or asking us to. We’re just talking. It’s almost like checking in with a friend so see how her day went.
    I hope you keep it up.

  37. I have tickets to see you on Saturday with some friends coming up from Venezuela, as we know Moises from when he interned at Procter & Gamble and acted in local theater in Caracas. We can’t wait to see the show and reading your blogs makes it more exciting but also more like family hearing your thougths and worries and knowing Moises and Jeff and their families. keep Blogging!

  38. As for the ego comment, think of us as friends keeping in touch.

    I’ve been chatting with on line friends for years.

    People from all over US and Canada.

    We’ve never met, but hardly go a week without chatting online.

  39. Ahhhh, Ms. Fonda,
    I knew you were deeper than most people give you credit for. The internet can indeed give people a longing to be important and the instant feedback to believe it.

    Of course everyone is important but we need balance in our lives to be whole. Hubris is a delicate thing, we all need to have a bit but a lot takes us where we’d really rather not be.

    There’s not a chance of a snowball in hell that I will ever see Broadway but I wish you well in your run. I hope someone records it for “American Playhouse” or somesuch. I remember seeing Blythe Danner in “The Eccentricities of a Nightengale” as the first of my “Broadway” experiencies back in the 1970’s. That’s the only way many of us will ever be able to experience “the theatre”.

    Blessed Be
    Marcie Weiler
    Thornton, CO

  40. I hope you keep blogging, I have enjoyed your writings – you are very gifted at expressing yourself! 🙂 I have several blogs I check and I am pasting in a link to the world orphans one I read today. http://abandoned-orphaned.typepad.com/paulmyhill/2009/03/dispensing-beauty.html It’s about child prostitution, but it’s also an AMAZING story full of hope and was very uplifting to me that God is working even in the midst of such suffering.

  41. I agree with you about friendships. It is easy with our busy lives to let people slip away.

    I saw you on The View, you were great. I would love to come and see the play.

  42. Jane, I think you might continue to blog. Maybe you wouldn’t do it as frequently, why not? I think blogging must be humbling in some way because your are forced to reflect and be honest. Great that Gloria came to see the play again. She is a friend, and I can attest that she was certainly in love with the play at the first preview. We both saw it, along with your old classmate Cristina Biaggi. I’m a 22-year-old student and waiting to have enough cash to come back and see the show for the second time! xo

  43. Hi Jane,
    I saw 33 Variations a few days ago and I wrote a post on it on my blog http://www.rethnea.com. I wanted to share with you the following: “Before the play began Rita Wilson walked out of a side stage door. I imagine she gave Jane Fonda a big hug and lovingly said to Colin Hanks that he will do great and wished them both “Break a Leg.” Then she sat in the darkness of the theater and her mother’s heart swelled with pride as Colin Hanks fantastically showed how love changes our lives. I wonder if Rita Wilson asked herself if Colin is a better variation of Tom Hanks. Aren’t those the hopes of our parents? That we, their children, will exceed and surpass them and become better variations of them. That we will take their best notes and take on a life and development of our own and become masterpieces. Just like Beethoven’s 33 variations surpassed Anton Diabelli’s waltz.”
    You can read the rest of the post here http://www.rethnea.com/2009/03/33-variations-a-broadway-play/

  44. I imagine blogging can affect the ego to a degree. In many ways you are creating a small (if not large) following of people interested in what you have to say/think/comment on, etc. It could be a powerful and profound. There were some interesting blogs during the “heat” of the combat in Iraq, which I would think was more like a way of a soldier there having his/her voice heard.

    I have noticed on a few blogs that the blogger’s tone does become a tad infused with a sense of self knowledge –as if they know better.

    Now though…what about the egos of some of us who take time to comment????

  45. I will be coming Thursday to see 33 Variations — so looking forward to it — First time reading your blog and EGO is a big concept — I’ve enjoyed Eckhart Tolle’s books and Pema Chodron’s START WHERE YOU ARE a guide to compassionate living — it if it feels pure please continue. I’ve always admired your honesty and presence – All best, Jayne —

  46. Since you are new to blogging.

    You will soon find out that some will ask you for money.
    I know they do alot over at Rosie’s blog.

    And you will get some that dont like you and call you names.

    I hope you will just ignore those and not let it bother you.

    It’s so much fun for us to feel a little connected to you, even if you choose to only do it during your plays run. Thanks

  47. Hi Jane! Stupidly, I wrote to you via the wrong link a few weeks ago – using “Ask Jane” instead of this comment link, which I assume is the better option. Anyway, I wrote at that time to invite you to join my partner and me for lunch when we came from Baltimore to see the show on February 14th. Well, it turned out that I woke up on the morning of the 14th with the flu, causing us to stay put in Baltimore and miss the play…to our great disappointment. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to purchase tickets for another performance (though we doubt that we’ll be able to replicate the right-down- front seats that we had secured for the 14th!) and head up without a glitch; we DO NOT want to miss the opportunity to savor your performance in this play! As for the lunch invitation, we hope that didn’t seem weird or forward, coming out of the blue on the “Ask Jane” connection as it did…we’d just really love to have the opportunity to share that time with you, to celebrate your return to the stage and to chat over our many common interests/commitments! You have inspired us both on so many levels, and I hold gratefully to the memories of my days as a CED member (most especially to the day I spent with you and Tom when you visited here to speak – photographing both of your appearances for the organization). I have also been so impressed with the time you’ve taken through the years to respond personally when I’ve communicated with you on a couple of occasions – when I wrote to ask about your stance regarding the boat people crisis, or to offer words of support as you filmed “Stanley and Iris” in the face of protest, or to send condolences at the time of your father’s passing; in each case, you sent a personal response, and that said so much about the depth of your character! So here I sit, all these years later, writing once again to thank you for the inspiration that you continue to provide via your life and work. At age 52, I hold fast to the drive for peace and justice (Sheldon and I are passionately engaged in the movement to abolish the death penalty, and we lend our hearts and efforts to several other pivotal issues), and our Christian faith forms the foundation for our activism…a firm foundation, indeed! Your brilliant film work remains precious to us, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to enjoy your finest performances (“Julia,” “Coming Home,” “Stanley and Iris,” “They Shoot Horses, “On Golden Pond” and, possibly most of all, the classic “Klute”) on DVD. “Julia,” “Klute,” and “Coming Home” are among the finest films ever made, and we discover some new layer or nuance each time we watch them all. And how cool that “F.T.A.” has found its way to DVD, after all these years-a film I’d missed in its initial release and had wanted to see through these many years since; it’s a brilliant document of important work, and I thank you for all that you did to offer entertainment, hope, and a voice to the GI community in the Vietnam era! My partner and I are both educators (at the elementary level), and we thank you for your dedicated work on behalf of young people in the U.S. and abroad. And one more thing (yes, just one, I promise!): God bless your little Tulea…We lost Norma, our beloved beagle, last year at age twelve, and our lives are just not the same since her passing. She truly was our child – the little girl we raised and cherished her whole life long – and the bond of unconditional love we shared with her made our home complete. I am working on the manuscript of a book about her, and about the life we shared with her, and I’m hoping it will find its way to publication so Norma’s spirit can live on as her story inspires others. Alright, I’ve rambled way too much here, but there was much I wanted to say and I’m grateful for this outlet to do so. If we do manage to get our hands on another pair of tickets (we’re thinking we’ll try for March 28th), we’ll let you know and offer up the invitation to share fellowship over a bite of lunch. In the meantime, our prayers are offered on your behalf as you head into this week with critics in attendance and opening night just around the corner!
    Mark Gruber

  48. I have followed your career for decades–from anti war activities (mine were parallel to yours), the fitness rage (same thing), your movies, your marriages (interviewed Tom Hayden for a radio station in Ann Arbor in ’77), etc. In fact I used to be told I looked like you. Anyway, I just wanted you to know I have always admired your authenticity and intelligence. Not easy to be so genuine when one is exposed to the public. Hope you’ll bring the play to the west coast so I can see it!

  49. I understand why you may not want to blog after all this is over. I would think it was like the Native Americans who don’t want their pictures taken for fear that a piece of their soul would also be taken. The sharing of your story is wonderful, but I understand if you don’t want to give too much away.

  50. Hi Jane,

    Thoughtful question re blogging and ego. Got me thinking too. Seems like if one were “paying attention”, and obviously you are , it could be a whole “practice” in the spiritual sense. What an opportunity… or NOT! Looking forward to your thoughts on the subject.

    Wishing you continued success with the play,
    Rosemary

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