Sean Astin Makes A Special Part Of The MuleNation

This past weekend, NJ and I got to join with hundreds of others up in Warrensburg for a special guest speaker at the Jerry M. Hughes Athletics Center. It was a talk for the Oppenheimer Symposium Series.  Let's get into how it went!

Wait, Wait, Wait, What's the Oppenheimer Symposium?

Well, first of all, this doesn't have anything to do with the bomb.  They just have the same name.  Dr. Julius J. Oppenheimer was a Windsor boy, the other Oppenheimer was from New York.  I mean, they might be distantly related, but that's not important.

J-Dogg was a Missouri native who earned degrees from Missouri State Teachers College (now it's called the University of Central Missouri, you might have heard of it), the University of Missouri, and Columbia University Teacher’s College. Since Juju always had a soft spot for UCM, he made sure to include the school in his generosity - and that has directly influenced the foundation today.  As part of the Oppenheimer Symposium, speakers come from all around the world, and the latest speaker was none other than actor and philanthropist Sean Astin.

Okay, So Who's Sean Astin?

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You're not serious, right?  Fine, I'll indulge you.  He's been in movies since the eighties.  He was Mikey in The Goonies, he was the narrator of Meerkat Manor, Dave in Encino Man, Rudy in Rudy, Patella in Courage Under Fire, Samwise in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Raphael in the 2017 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Doug in 50 First Dates, Bob in Stranger Things, Bill in Click... and he's also done a ton of work in video games. And, he just did a movie with his old Goonies co-star!

I mean, you get it.  Dude is a working actor.  He's been around the block a few times.

One thing he's also really passionate about is mental health. He spends considerable time out of the year going around the world trying to destigmatize the topic.  He also has a charitable foundation called Run3rd, which you can find out more about here. Or you can watch this video, it's pretty impressive!

Great.  How'd It Go?

Take a look through photos, won't you, gentle reader?

While I definitely feel like the theme was Mental Health, it didn't feel like a class, or a lecture, or anything formal.  To be honest, it felt like a talk you'd have with someone after about three hours around a campfire in the backyard. There were stories about perseverance, clarity, family, and even his religious faith, and towards the end he even answered a few audience questions. Sean talked a little bit about how his films have inspired him, and how his work keeps him going.  One movie he mentioned was one I hadn't heard of before, The Surface.  But I found the trailer.

It's strange how you can have a very fast shorthand with someone like that.  He even mentioned that when he meets people, it's like jumping from the first date to the fifth - while he doesn't know anything about us, we know a lot about him already.  Which made sense.  But really, it was more about humanity, about our connections we have with other humans, and how we foster those conversations.

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I admit, I didn't take notes  - mostly because as soon as he sat down, this didn't feel like a formal event anymore.  And honestly, that might be part of his plan for events like these.  To throw you off guard to to speak - so that you can really think about those topics we like to to push away to a time when "things aren't as busy", or whatever we're telling ourselves.  So I'm sorry if I didn't get into enough detail about everything.  It felt like everyone was just having a real conversation, even if we all weren't talking.  It just would have felt weird to be taping the entire time or taking photos throughout. We were involved, and that kind of empathy is wonderful to see.  I really felt his humility, but also his humor!  While serious topics were discussed, we were laughing just about every two minutes or so.  The hour just flew by.

And yes, he did it.

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Thanks to everyone who made this event possible!  I'll leave you with a quote that I think helped to sum up the whole thing: "People will root for anyone who shows them their heart".  We'll keep rooting for you and your journey, Sean, as an honorary member of Mulenation!

Gonzanga-ly yours,

Behka