Where Personal and Professional Life Collide...

As many of you know, I've recently taken Misha Collins as my Overlord and Yoda. We joke about this, but for many of us it's true, and it's hard to explain why, to people who aren't already there.

It's not only because of GISHWHES (although that alone would have won my heart), and certainly not because of SPN (I like the show but even as a teenager I didn't go that overboard for actors or musicians, etc). It's not even because of the good work he does on a quieter, regular basis - there are a lot of people Doing Good out there, without creating this kind of following.

So I was trying to verbalize why, exactly, this guy pushed my buttons so hard. And then it was like, well, duh.

Collins has managed to turn himself - his public persona - into Art. And by that I mean not something pretty or appealing, but something that can zing us below the surface. We look at a photo of him doing something outrageous, or read what he's said off-script, and think not "well, he's weird" (although yeah that too) but also "hey wait, why did I react like that? What about what he's doing struck me as odd, and why and what does that say about MY expectations and assumptions?"

And it happens not in a hurtful or insulting way, but inviting us to get in on the joke, to see those assumptions as something we're ready to leave behind, rather than something we need to defend. Which is rare, and brilliant, and maybe even more admirable than everything else.







(gif from here)