Let's Be Franco

Following James Franco on Instagram is strange, enjoyable and a bit sad.

First of all, his handle is jamesfrancotv    He looks like he is having a great time.

But this is the thing that I don't understand. At all.
How can he be a movie star, a painter, a teacher (in LA on Mondays, his day off from his Tuesday through Sunday Broadway run in New York) be getting a bunch of degrees, it seems, right now from Yale in literature while hopping over to RISD for some classes? Oh, and he's a poet and filmmaker.

I am in awe of his stamina? I remember running at that speed (but not at that level, obviously) when I was in my early twenties. He is in his mid-thirties and I wonder---Is this all catch up? Is this a super-duper runaway train of hyper avoidance?

So I looked a little closer. When he was going to Columbia, NYU and Brooklyn College for degrees in writing, film and...writing, there was a lot of controversy about him not actually going to all his classes. How could he?

So I wonder. Why all this running around, so densely?

I worry about the day he crashes. You spread yourself too thin...and you end up in two dimensions and you keel. Of course, I may be writing this in a vague cloud of jealousy, but nah--more than anything, I am wondering..."HOW DOES HE DO THIS? but really, WHY?"

He must not waste an ounce of energy on worry. He must not, at all, be bothered by the judgment of others. He just does all this stuff.

It's fascinating.

He does seem to be having a good time. Of course, he's an actor and he is doing his "Instagram Show"---so who really knows?

It may just be all performance. And that's fine. But if it is that, I wonder if he knows?

It's been strange...James on my phone. I've not witnessed anything quite like it before.