Those About to Die

We started watching Those About to Die on Peacock. All ten episodes have dropped. It stars Anthony Hopkins as the Emperor Vespasian. As yet, we’ve only watched the first episode but we’ll be continuing on.

One line, in particular, struck me and I thought it needed some wider distribution.

Hopkins was speaking to one son about the other son. The son asked if he was going to punish the other and Hopkins said, “Praise in public, discipline in private.”

This reminded me of a situation when I was working at a University bookstore and the manager came up to me in the middle of the floor in front of both co-workers and customers and yelled at me about something. I asked her to follow me to the back room and said, “First of all, NEVER speak to anyone like that in front of co-workers or especially customers again. And secondly, I didn’t do what you just yelled at me about.” She was suddenly extremely apologetic. I think more about what she’d done out on the floor than accusing me of something I hadn’t done.

But these are words to live by…