A Weekend Tale of Two Tales
Hey, remember 2010? It was just 10 years ago though it seems so last century. So, it was somewhat surprising when 2010 reared its head over the weekend in two stories with two very different endings, and coronavirus had nothing to do with either one.
About, then, 2010. Johnny Depp was at the top of the acting game and was working on another Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. The Red Sox’ twenty-five-year-old Daniel Bard was working on one of the statistically finest relief pitching seasons in baseball history.
By 2012, Depp had another huge hit and Bard was poised to break out as a superstar reliever. Then, Depp inexplicably took roles in a series of horrifically bad movies, and Bard… well Bard ran into an equally horrific manager who decided one of the best relievers in baseball could be just as effective as a starter.
Bard soon came down with Steve Blass Disease, a.k.a., ‘the yips.’ No matter what he did he could not find the plate, could not throw a strike. He kicked around the minors for the next six years. It got worse. So bad. He found himself in Florida in a rookie league at age 32. He quit baseball after the 2017 season.
Depp kept taking terrible role after terrible role in the lousy movie after lousy movie, then compounded it all by getting married.
While Bard faded away, Depp became less an actor and more of a celebrity constantly on the front pages of The Star and National Inquire for his very public marital problems with Amber Heard and, of course, sneaking their dogs into Australia.
In 2017, Bard was getting into therapy and reading books about Zen and meditation and practicing yoga; Depp was all over the media after Heard filed for divorce and accused him of hitting her. Soon after, he accused her of abusing him.
The divorce was finalized in short order, Heard got a $7 million settlement, but the accusations kept getting louder and louder. The Sun in London was particularly keen to publish every sordid detail, quoting Heard extensively.
In 2019, Depp sued The Sun and Heard for defamation. Meanwhile, Bard became a mental skills coach and mentor for the Colorado Rockies.
This February Depp was preparing for his trial; Bard was playing catch with his charges at Rockies’ spring training. The younger players all marveled at how strong his arm was, he felt good, the ball went where he wanted it to, and most of all he wasn’t thinking about it. He asked the Rockies if he could try out, they said, in essence, ‘you’re here anyway, you might as well start throwing some.’
And so, we come to this past weekend when Depp and Bard were trending everywhere by Saturday night. Depp’s trial wrapped up on Friday. It was an unmitigated disaster. Everything – everything – about his marriage and personal life and his alleged abuse was repeated over and over and over in court. The Sun was there covering every moment of the trial; its viewership took off to the point where it no longer matters if they win or lose the case.
Final arguments are scheduled for this week but, really, why bother? An attorney covering the trial said the trial “had the effect of placing the damning allegation at the heart of the case — that Mr. Depp is a ‘wife beater’ — into a giant global megaphone. As a result of the trial, millions of more people have been made aware of The Sun’s allegation than would have been the case if Mr. Depp had not sued.”
What Does This Mean For You?
In short, no good will ever come of not adjusting your perspective. A journalist covering the trial summed it up this way, “The two legal teams were seeking to destroy the character of the person so their side of the story can’t be believed. They were trying to portray Heard or Depp as so mendacious, so drug-addled or irresponsible that they could be capable of making everything up.”
Both parties are irreparably harmed. Both parties will be remembered for this. No one will remember The Sun as one of the parties involved.
As for Daniel Bard, he came into Saturday’s game for the Rockies in relief and got the win. Seven years after he last appeared in a major league baseball game.
He had this to say about the adversity he had faced, “You have to adjust your perspective of what’s going on, you can make that feeling a really positive thing where it helps you, or really negative thing where crushes you. It wasn’t something I learned overnight, it’s taken practice. It’s taking a lot of intentional work on my part, but hopefully, this proves to anybody out there struggling with anything that it can be done.”
Perspective. That’s what separates Bard and Depp. Bard had perspective and it served him well. And Depp? He had had none.
Everyone going through a divorce or a family law matter needs perspective above all even when it is challenging to deal with such an emotional matter.
We are here to help put everything in perspective to guide you through it. Contact us, and we will help adjust your perspective to see the positives and new opportunities in your situation.
Want to read more about North Carolina family law? Check out the latest on our blog:
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