Mediocrity Takes on Some Champs

I don't have the time or will to do a complete analysis of all the faults in The Mighty Macs. It is yet the latest disappointing movie effort to be produced and financed by committed Christians. It will not make its money back and will not add anything to the journey of the exclusively Christian audience that will be coaxed into theaters to support it. Subjecting it to a serious analysis would make me look like a fool, because it would mean applying more serious thought and experience to the movie than the filmmakers obviously did. Here follows a few comments I put on Steve Greydanus' Facebook review of the project.

Great sports movies, like Hoosiers, Brian's Song and Moneyball, always remember that the movie is not about "the big game." The movie is about the internal struggle of the main character which is complicated by the big game. Of the myriad things that made The Mighty Macs lame, the worst was the absence of any real internal conflict. There is no sin in the movie which means there is no tension or real stakes. Flannery O'Connor condemned this in Catholic art as an "overemphasis on innocence." We Catholics should know better because we know what is in the heart of men. Secondly, the movie was lacking in most of the things that make a movie great. There was no subtext, no imagery, no layering, no complexity of character, no theme, no surprises and then, some really lame dialogue. Finally, the movie was a terrible depiction of religious life utterly lacking in any real Catholic sensibility. See Ida Lupino's classic The Trouble with Angels for a wonderful portrayal of nuns as real, flesh and blood people. The big question of The MIghty Macs is why the filmmakers didn't get some help on the script. They had to know they were over their heads, right? I mean, they must have seen a good movie once or twice before?

Screenwriting Grammar Matters

Somebody wrote me recently that their project got rejected in Hollywood for improper formatting. The writer was irate that such a small thing would be used to reject his script. Here, for the general edification was my response....

I wanted to express a brief defense on behalf of those of us who are sticklers about screenwriting grammar, aka formatting. Considered under a professional lens, formatting is not irrelevant. In the vast majority of projects, a correctly formatted page equals one minute of time on the screen. The margins for dialogue are shorter and allow for the actors to add expression. The longer margins allow the audience to get a good enough look at whatever is being described. Beyond timing, capitalizations are signposts to casting agents, line producers, directors and DP's for all their respective tasks.

The best way to consider a screenplay is like unto an architectural drawing. People outside the profession do not appreciate all the industry standard norms for drawing, and would probably dismiss them. But they have their uses. Essential uses from a professional standpoint.

Considering that these things are essentials, it could be a disservice to discourage your readers from giving them proper attention. Christians already have a bad rap in Hollywood for lack of professionalism. We don't want to add condescension to ignorance.

People who haven't learned the industry standard for formatting are better off writing their story in a straight narrative fashion, as in a treatment. There are some expectations for a treatment, but few people in the business will quibble over them.

On Visual Imagery

I am giving a two day workshop on the use of visual imagery in storytelling in Colorado in February 2012. They asked me to write a short piece about the topic for their magazine. I wrote too much and they will probably lose half of it. For posterity's sake, here's the whole thing.

A Good Visual Image is Worth a Thousand Words

By Barbara Nicolosi

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Mt. 13:44

Poetry is the most respectful of art forms. The whole reason for a poem is the acknowledgment that reality is too complex and mysterious to be reduced to the limits of wordy definitions. Poetry searches for metaphors to reveal facets of reality by likening them to other things. In the famous poem “The Blind Men and the Elephant” by John Godfrey Saxe, we laugh to hear that an elephant is alternately like a wall, and then, like a spear, and then like a snake, and a tree, a fan and a rope. The poem assures us that an elephant isn’t any of those things, but is something like all of them.

Poetry is also eminently respectful of the reader, because it has to have faith in his or her intelligence, sensitivity and imagination – basically in the reader’s humanity – to succeed. The poet is a riddler who crafts a picture puzzle and hopes that someone will be enticed to go through the difficult process of unraveling it. If they do, the labor they have expended will make the solution valuable to them. You know what I mean if you have ever been driving along on a country road, and then suddenly understood what Emily Dickinson meant when she wrote,

I had been hungry all the years-

My noon had come, to dine-

I, trembling, drew the table near

And touched the curious wine.

Suddenly, as C.S. Lewis said about the purpose of literature, you know you’re not alone.

Sadly, my sense of so much Christian literature is that it fails because it neither respects the mysteries underlying the human choices it describes, nor the humanity of the reader. Why is it that people of faith have so little faith in people?

Our Lord set the example for all Christian storytellers by extensively utilizing visual images. One has to presume that He could have given a clinically accurate description of His reality as the Second Person of the Trinity. And yet he chose to describe himself as “the Vine”, “the Good Shepherd,” “the Light of the World,” “the Bread of Life.” The Kingdom of heaven is presented to us not through geometrical and philosophical definitions, but as “a great net cast into the sea,” “or a vineyard,” or “a lost coin,” or “a treasure in a field.” Hence, following the example of the Master, Christian artists through the ages have tended to approach reality humbly through images that in their distortion or emphasis bring us wisdom infused with reverence. It was a good way to be.

So what happened to us? Why is so much contemporary Christian art and literature banal? Why do our works not only not cause the world to brood, but cause them to dismiss us? Part of the problem is that so little Christian work today has any powerful lyrical imagery. In so doing, we separate ourselves from storytellers like Homer and Dante and Hawthorne and Poe, all of whom were masters of visual paradox.

My sense is that many contemporary writers couldn’t even say what a lyrical image is or why it is important in a story. At it’s basic level, a lyrical image is sacramental in a story, giving the reader something to see in their mind’s eye that points to hidden realities. Imagery should come into play particularly to get an audience to brood over a project’s theme, but also can be very helpful in making a character’s motivations and choices more resonant.

In her story Good Country People, the great writer and Christian, Flannery O’Connor, created a character who was a PhD with a wooden leg.

“She believes in nothing but her own belief in nothing, and we perceive that there is a wooden part of her soul that corresponds to her wooden leg. Now of course this is never stated. The fiction writer states as little as possible. The reader makes this connection from things he is shown. He may not even know that he makes the connection, but the connection is there nevertheless and it has its effect on him.” (Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners)

The truth is, it is easier to tell people what you think, then to entice them to think on something, which is what a good visual image does. Coming up with a good visual image for a story requires a double portion of the intelligence, sensitivity and imagination that a reader will need to unravel it.

New Article from Barb on Euthanasia

Here is a new piece I wrote for my friends at Crisis Magazine about the coming battle for euthanasia. Please click on the link, and send it on to other friends. This issue is critically important, and, as always, our side is staring off into the sunset missing the massing of the opposition.

"The evidence is undeniable: Somewhere in the middle of the Terri Schiavo tragedy, Hollywood and the cultural left climbed aboard the latest human-killing bandwagon and have since thrown the weight of their talent and creativity behind it. As with abortion, the forces of darkness are outmaneuvering the forces of good on what will certainly be the moral issue of the 21st century.

If we lose the fight on euthanasia, we lose our souls. By removing suffering and the meaning of suffering from our culture, we make the final step in denying and defying our creature-hood. Once again, the seductive lie of Eden will trip us up: “If you will do this thing, you shall be like God.”"

Mass for Artists in NYC

Just passing this on....

_______________________________

Dear friends and fellow artists,

It's a great pleasure to invite you to the inaugural event of the Catholic Artists Society on Sunday, May 15th at 5pm at the Church of Our Saviour in Manhattan.

A Solemn High Mass of the Holy Spirit will be celebrated for members of our growing Catholic arts and media community. All artists, their families and friends of the arts are invited to attend. Following the mass, Fr. Joseph Koterski, SJ, from Fordham University, will give a talk on "Ignatian Prayer and the Work of the Artist". A reception will follow.

You can sign up for updates on this and future events at http://catholicartistssociety.posterous.com/

The Solemn extraordinary form Mass will be celebrated by Fr. George Rutler, pastor of Our Saviour’s. Fr. Michael Barone will be deacon and Fr. Joseph Koterski, SJ will act as sub-deacon. Sacred music will be provided by the Schola Cantorum of St. Mary Church (Norwalk, CT), under the direction of David J. Hughes. Guest organist Herve Duteil will provide additional music.

The Catholic Artists Society was initiated in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s Address to Artists at the Sistine Chapel in November, 2009. Following the Holy Father’s call for artists to be “custodians of Beauty” and “heralds and witnesses of Hope for humanity” the society seeks to foster solidarity and fellowship amongst the faithful engaged in the creative professions, encouraging the ongoing artistic and spiritual development of all artists and media professionals, so that their work may more perfectly reflect God’s glory, enriching and ennobling men and women, our society and our culture.

We look forward to seeing you on the 15th. Please let me know if you plan to attend so we can get an idea of numbers for the reception. An invitation with details is attached.

Yours in Christ,

Kevin Collins

What Happened to the Good Stories?

Here's a snippet from an interview I just did with a Christian magazine called Aletheia. It will be coming out later in the summer.

Q: Where would you say our culture stands in regards to good storytellers and stories?

BN: My opinion is that we have nearly lost the ability to tell a good story. Part of this is the loss we are seeing in all the art forms, which I think has something to do with the loss of rigor and discipline that is the doorway to the beautiful. Also, I think a lot of the artistic impulses in our time have been drowned in Ritalin and Prozac. Finally, I think the urge to make something beautiful comes from a sense of gratitude and immortality. In our culture, both those values are ever more quaint.

When we consider the Church, nothing is clearer than that we seem to have proudly cast off the beautiful as an elitist throwback to a less enlightened time. In the Church, we spurn the beautiful in favor of egalitarianism, politics and utility. I have had priests tell me that they can’t afford to ensure beautiful music for the liturgy, or else that beautiful music is relative, or that beautiful music is less important than in making Doris and Stan, the untalented but warm-hearted music ministry folks, feel appreciated. After the terrible music, the next most egregiously bad practiced art from in the Church today is oratory. Too many of our pastors seem to take it as a point of pride that their homilies have nothing of the basics of a good speech about them. Far from making our hearts burn within us, most homilies today leave the faithful’s brains burning with indignation. I’m waiting for people to finally crest with all the banality and start shouting back at the pulpit.

In Hollywood, storytelling has been lost mainly due to the fact that movies are seen first as commercial products and second as whole, harmonious and radiant stories. There is no change to any part of a story that today’s studio wont make to please an egomaniacal actor or director. There is no part of a movie too sacred not to be cheapened by product placement. There is no overarching theme that can survive the endless tinkering of producers trying desperately to bring the project in on time and under budget. The only real future for good storytelling seems to be outside the studio system. It’s sad, but I think Hollywood’s days of having access to the imagination of the world are gone.

The Grand Inquisitor and Lent

Here is a talk that I will be giving to our Hollywood RCIA folks this coming Thursday, April 7th, at Family Theater in Hollywood. It's a good talk. Feel free to attend if you are in the area.

Thursday, April 7, 2011 – 7:30pm – 9:30pm

TEMPTATION AND PENITENTIAL ACTS / THE SACRAMENTS OF HEALING: PENANCE AND ANOINTING OF THE SICK

Instructor: Barbara Nicolosi Harrington

Reading: CCC 1434-1439; CCC 1422-1424, 1440-1470, 1499, 1511-1525; “The Grand Inquisitor” from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

To learn: The Act of Contrition (see p. 191 in the Compendium)

For journal: What is it that tempts you? How do you respond to temptation? How do I understand the sacrament of reconciliation?

See Barb at Hedgebrook Workshop

Here's a wonderful writers' conference at which I will be presenting next month.

HEDGEBROOK ALUMNAE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL:

LOS ANGELES CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

Saturday, April 9, 2011

At Mount St. Mary's College, Chalon Campus - Los Angeles, CA

The Hedgebrook Alumnae Leadership Council: Los Angeles is pleased to announce its second annual series of creative workshops. This year's focus is on writing for film and TV and magazines. Join us for panels with writers from Seinfeld, Mad Men, Big Love, The United States of Tara and more. We've got workshops on finding representation, breaking into advertising, and travel writing, as well as our popular E-Marketing for Documentary and Independent Filmmakers course. Come for a single class, or the entire day. A portion of your donation is tax deductible and will benefit Hedgebrook.

SUGGESTED DONATION: $40 per class (general public)/ $30 (Hedgebrook Alumnae)

Any 4 classes for $120 (general public)/ $100 (Hedgebrook Alumnae)

Panels 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM	Getting Representation as a Writer – Kalia York and Alicia Lipinski of Headlong Entertainment
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM	Women in TV – Tracy McMillian, Jude Weng, Julia Cho and Jen Grisanti
2:45 – 4:15 PM	Conversations on Comedy with Seinfeld – David Mandel and Peter Mehlman
4:30 – 6:00 PM	Breaking into Copywriting & Advertising – Simon Foster, Michael Faella & Marc Jensen of Agency Division

Workshops 9:00 – 10:30 AM	Writing Powerful Dialogue – Crickett Rumley
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM	Traveling, Writing and Getting Paid For It – Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM	Creating Haunting Moments in Storytelling – Barbara Nicolosi
12:30 – 2:30 PM	Writing Reality TV, a Hands-on Workshop – Jude Weng
3:30 – 6:00 PM	E-Marketing For Documentary & Independent Filmmakers – Judith Dancoff

The workshops will take place at beautiful Mount St. Mary's College. Nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains over Brentwood in West Los Angeles, with views of the Pacific Ocean and the Getty Center, Mount St. Mary's is a true retreat from city life. Attendees are invited to use the campus common areas as a relaxing writing retreat between sessions.

The Hedgebrook Alumnae Leadership Council: Los Angeles represents Hedgebrook Alumnae in Southern California. Together with Hedgebrook, we support visionary women writers whose stories and ideas shape our culture now and for generations to come.

Course Descriptions

The Perfect Line: How to Write Compelling Dialogue with Crickett Rumley

Saturday, April 9th, 9am – 10:30am ROOM 201

Everybody loves a great turn of phrase, whether it’s a snappy punch line or an inspiring monologue. But what’s the secret to writing good dialogue? Understanding that it is not mere chit-chat—it is conversation with intent. In this lecture class, we will use a series of film clips to identify the way dialogue serves both the writer’s and the characters’ intentions as well as discuss techniques for crafting lines that create multiple layers of meaning. All writers, whether novelists, playwrights, or screenwriters, are welcome!

Class size limit: 50

Hedgebrook Alum Crickett Rumley graduated with an MFA in Film from Columbia University and now teaches screenwriting at the New York Film Academy (Universal Studios). As a screenwriter, she has developed projects with PBS, Pink Slip Pictures, Killer Films, and Gigantic Pictures. Her debut young adult novel Never Sit Down in a Hoopskirt and Other Things I Learned in Southern Belle Hell comes out in June 2011 from Egmont USA.

Getting Representation as a Writer with Kaila York and Alicia Lipinski of Headlong Entertainment

Saturday, April 9th, 9am – 10am ROOM 204

Whether you ’re looking for representation or unhappy with your current people, Kaila York and Alicia Lipinski outline the difference between agents and managers while giving hands on advice on how to find the best person to represent you. Using anecdotes from their careers, Kaila and Alicia will share their experiences and any insider information they’ve gleaned. Part discussion, part Q & A, Kaila and Alicia will dispell myths and dispense knowledge to best help participants find the management they need.

Class size limit: 90

After leaving Paradigm, Kaila York formed Headlong Entertainment, a literary management and film production company. She represents a select and diverse range of clients, including film and television writers (Matt Graham, Secret History of America for Oliver Stone/Showtime), book authors (Gemma Halliday, Spying in High Heels franchise) and directors (Tamar Halpern, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life). On the production side, Headlong has just wrapped production on a supernatural feature, and recently created a television series based on the book and blog, Art of Manliness, at Warner Brothers Television.

Women in TV with Julia Cho, Tracy McMillan, Jen Grisanti and Jude Weng

Saturday, April 9th, 10:30am to Noon ROOM 204

As television shows take on riskier, boundary-busting storylines, women have risen in the ranks as writers and producers. From The United States of Tara and Big Love to Army Wives and Mad Men, our panelists are making their mark on the TV world. Come join these impressive writers and producers as they share about their experiences about breaking in and staying on top cable, network, and reality TV programs.

Class size limit: 90

Hedgebrook Alum Julia Cho’s plays have been produced at Roundabout Theatre Company, The Public Theater, The Vineyard Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Repertory and New York Theatre Workshop among others. Her play, The Language Archive, was awarded the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Television work includes Canterbury’s Law, Fringe and Big Love. She is a member of New Dramatists.

Tracy McMillan is a television writer currently working on the USA network show Necessary Roughness. Her credits also include Mad Men, The United States of Tara and Life on Mars. Tracy is also developing book and television projects from her viral Huffington Post essay, Why You're Not Married. Her memoir I Love You and I’m Leaving You Anyway is now available in paperback from Harper Collins/It Books.

In January 2008, Jen launched Jen Grisanti Consultancy Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to helping talented writers break into the industry. By drawing on her 12-year experience as a studio executive when she gave daily notes to executive producers and showrunners, Jen personally guides writers to shape their material, hone their pitches, and focus their careers. Jen has worked with over 300 writers working in television, features and novels. She has had success getting writers staffed and has had two of her clients sell pilots that both went to series. Jen Grisanti is the Writing Instructor for NBC’s Writers on the Verge, Blogger for The Huffington Post and author of the upcoming book, Story Line: Finding Gold In Your Life Story.

In the last decade, Jude Weng has produced, directed, or written for over 200 hours of alternative television. Jude has enjoyed a prolific and diverse career through genres such as ob-docs (Secret Lives of Women), makeovers (Real Simple Real Life), competition game shows(Survivor, The Mole, Next Action Star), docu-soaps (Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant, Tommy Lee Goes to College), and social experiments (Black White on F/X). Currently, Jude is showrunning a confidential pilot for Lifetime, and Shedding For The Wedding, a new weight-loss makeover series with the creator of The Biggest Loser for the CW.

Traveling, Writing and Getting Paid For It with Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee

Saturday, April 9th, 11am – 12:30pm ROOM 201

Wouldn't you love to get paid to take a food and wine tour of the south of France or go on an all-expenses paid trip to a Hawaiian resort? That's what makes travel writing seem so romantic. In this workshop, you'll learn the joys, pains and realities of travel writing, variety of markets and options available, the writing craft elements, and the where and how to market your work.

Class size limit: 50

Hedgebrook Alum Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee is a travel and food writer. Author of Frommer's South Korea and Frommer's Day by Day Seoul. She has written for numerous publications, including Yahoo!Travel, Food and Wine, Eating Well, Hotels.com, and the Los Angeles Times.

Writing Reality TV: A Hands-on Workshop with Jude Weng

Saturday, April 9th, 12:30- 2:30 ROOM 204

The Reality Behind Reality TV workshop will discuss the numerous career opportunities that exist in non-scripted TV. This fun and entertaining workshop will unfold through anecdotes that translate directly into practical advice for those seeking a career in the creative or entertainment industry, with the last portion of the workshop dedicated to a hands-on DEVELOPMENT & PITCH exercise.

Class size limit: 90

In the last decade, Jude Weng has produced, directed, or written for over 200 hours of alternative television. Jude has enjoyed a prolific and diverse career through genres such as ob-docs (Secret Lives of Women), makeovers (Real Simple Real Life), competition game shows(Survivor, The Mole, Next Action Star), docu-soaps (Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant, Tommy Lee Goes to College), and social experiments (Black White on F/X). Currently, Jude is showrunning a confidential pilot for Lifetime, and Shedding For The Wedding, a new weight-loss makeover series with the creator of The Biggest Loser for the CW.

Creating Haunting Moments in Storytelling with Barbara Nicolosi Harrington

Saturday, April 9th, 1pm – 3pm ROOM 201

Flannery O'Connor noted that in order to make a story "work" what is needed is a "haunting moment." This class will discuss what it means to make a story "work", and how to construct moments that will get stuck in a profound way, in viewers minds, hearts and imaginations.

Class size limit: 50

Barbara Nicolosi is a screenwriter and the founder of the prestigious Act One: Writing for Hollywood program. She is an adjunct professsor of screenwriting at Pepperdine University and Azusa Pacific University. Her most recent credit will be the 2012 MGM release, Mary: Mother of the Christ which she co-wrote with Ben Fitzgerald (The Passion of the Christ) and which will star Al Pacino, Camilla Belle and Peter O'Toole.

Conversations on Comedy with Seinfeld Writer/Producers David Mandel and Peter Mehlman

WRITING SEINFELD

Saturday, April 9th, 2:45pm – 4:15pm ROOM 204

Join us for 90 minutes of laughs and insight into what it takes to create a hit comedy series with David Mandel (exec. Producer Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld) and Peter Mehlman (Seinfeld, It’s Like, You Know). Mehlman and Mandel are responsible for some of the greatest episodes in the popular Seinfeld series and continue to make us laugh in film, TV, and print today. Q&A will make up part of this panel and who knows who else might join in?

Class size limit: 90

David Mandel is an executive producer, writer and director of Curb Your Enthusiasm. His previous credits include the movies Eurotrip (writer, uncredited co-director), Saturday Night Live (92-95), and Seinfeld. His Seinfeld episodes include "The Bizarro Jerry," "The Betrayal" (co-written with Peter Mehlman), and "The Pool Guy,” for which he won a Writers Guild Award.

Peter Mehlman An executive producer and writer on Seinfeld, he is the author of such now classic Seinfeld-isms as “spongeworthy,” “shrinkage,” “double-dipping," and the “Yada Yada” episode. He is the creator of “It’s like, you know...,”and numerous other TV shows and continues to write screenplays and humor pieces for NPR, Esquire, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

E-Marketing for Documentary and Independent Filmmakers with Judith Dancoff

Saturday, April 9th, 3:30pm to 6pm ROOM 201 You've made a great film, but it hasn't made you any money—yet. Judith Dancoff has found an untapped market that can turn your creative darling into a cash cow. Libraries and universities regularly pay hundreds of dollars for DVDs on a myriad of topics. Let Judith Dancoff teach you how to reap the benefits of these sales, without paying film distributors, or having your project languish inside of a distributor’s catalogue. This course will cover the rudiments of identifying the academic, library, and specialty markets best suited for your film; how to put together a website and pitch letter that will effectively sell your film to these markets; introduce free and inexpensive ways to reach potential buyers; the best ways to reach potential buyers, including the use of inexpensive and free lists; navigating legal issues, and how to tackle commercial marketing. Class size limit: 50

Hedgebrook Alum Judith Dancoff is a Los Angeles writer, documentary filmmaker, and marketing consultant, who learned the rudiments of e-marketing through selling her own film, now owned by hundreds of universities and museums in the US and abroad.

AGENCY DIVISION Breaking into Copywriting and Advertising

Saturday, April 9th, 4:30pm – 6pm ROOM 204

Agency Division is a full-service advertising boutique made up of dedicated professionals. In this panel, three advertising veterans will discuss how they broke into the business, what has kept them there, and what they look for in a good writer. Q & A will be opened up to the audience along with tips on how to hone your copywriting skills. Class size limit: 90

Simon Foster is the founder and CEO of Agency Division and a 15-year veteran of the TV advertising industry. He was the head of Creative and Integrated Production at the advertising agency SpotRunner and before that ran GlobeShooter, a Los Angeles based production company. He has produced dozens of commercials for national brands such as Apple, Pepsi, Budweiser and Cicsco.

Michael Faella is the Executive Creative Director of Agency Division. He has led campaigns for brands including Microsoft, Forex.com, Buy.com , Enzymatic, Legal Zoom, AIG, and Diamond Promotion Service/DeBeers. Faella is also an accomplished commercial director, having directed over a hundred spots for brands ranging from Ford to Microsoft. Marc Jensen is a Creative Director at Agency Division. He began his copywriting career at Valentine Radford where he worked on national accounts for Hallmark, Pizza Hut and Spring. He’s been with several advertising agencies in Los Angeles, working his way up from Copywriter to Creative Director where he has managed teams of writers. Throughout his career, he has written for print, television, radio, online, direct response as well as collateral and outdoor campaigns for a diverse range of clients.

HOW TO RESERVE A CLASS

$40 suggested donation per class (general public)/ $30 (Hedgebrook Alumnae)

Any 4 classes for $120 (general public)/ $100 (Hedgebrook Alumnae)

A portion of your donation is tax-deductible. See payment page for more details.

To make payment and reserve your seat, click here and follow the directions at the bottom of the page, or visit www.hedgebrook.org and look under Events.

Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email with driving directions and parking instructions. Please print your confirmation email and bring it to the workshop for admission.

Love Angelus.

News from my friends at Actors Co-op

Sent by: Actors Co-op at the Crossley Theatre Reply to the sender

KING LEAR MEETS THE WILD WEST 4 LADCC NOMINATIONS FOR WIT! MID-SEASON SUBSCRIPTIONS STILL AVAILABLE! Actors Co-op presents a KING LEAR unlike any you've ever seen . . . Set in a sprawling California of the 1850s, newly awash in gold, this innovative production is placed against the backdrop of a young Wild West where ambition, power and morality are destined to collide. Arguably Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, this LEAR is a brutal and intimate examination of humanity that will leave you breathless. Tickets are on sale NOW! Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM andSundays at 2:30 PM. Saturday matinees are scheduled for March 5 and 12 at 2:30 PM. This production takes place in the Crossley Theater. To make your reservation, CLICK HERE or call 323.462.8460, Ext. 300. Actors Co-op Receives FOUR Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award Nominations for WIT! Photo Credit: Lindsay Schnebly Actors Co-op is proud to announce that last season's acclaimed production of WIT has been recognized with four Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award nominations including BEST PRODUCTION. Congratulations to the nominees! Lead Performance: Nan McNamara Direction: Marianne Savell Lighting Design: James L. Moody Production: WIT, Actors Co-op NEED TO PURCHASE TICKETS? CLICK HERE! IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO JOIN THE ACTORS CO-OP SUBSCRIBER FAMILY! Mid-Season Subscriptions to our 19th Anniversary Season of Peerless Playwrights... Superb Storytelling... and Thrilling Theatre are still available. Join us for a night at the theatre. With two wonderful shows and subscriptions available for as little as $55, it’s the perfect night out on the town! Click here for more information! In its 19th season of illuminating theatre, Actors Co-op operates two 99-seat Equity-approved theatres on the campus of Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Actors Co-op 1760 N. Gower Street * Hollywood, CA 90028 (323) 462-8460 www.ActorsCo-op.org This e-mail was sent from Actors Co-op at the Crossley Theatre Immediate removal with PatronMail® SecureUnsubscribe. To forward this e-mail to a friend or colleague, use this link. To change your e-mail address or update preferences, use this link.

[NOTE FROM BARB: Here is the outline for a talk I gave this weekend at the San Diego Christian Writers Guild Conference. Several people asked me for the notes, so I told them I'd post them.]

Who Is Your Audience? Writing What Your Soul Knows

for the San Diego Christian Writers Conference

September 25, 2010

II. This talk will have three parts.

A) Part One will talk about the question of what it means to write what you know.
B) Part Two will talk about the issue of commerciality. What is it to be commercial – to have mass appeal – such that editors or investors or producers will want to give you money?
C) Part Three will look at the particular moment we are in as writers who are disciples of the Lord and hopefully get some answer to Jesus’ query, “Can you not read the signs of the times?”

III. If there is anything that is clear, it’s that writing is more than any other art form, an attempt to communicate in an articulate way. The sole color on the pallet of the writer is words. Great writing moves immediately from being a rambling monologue, and becomes a dialogue with the reader’s heart and mind. The pictures you create with your words get matched to the reader’s memory and imagination, and he or she begins to edit and highlight and fill-out what you offer from his or her own experience. This happens more or less according to whatever level of history the reader brings to your work.

Having said this, I am not sure I believe I the idea of writing for a demographic. I do basically permit the idea of using fewer and more simpler words and plots for young children. But beyond that, if you are too concerned with writing “for a particular kind of person, you run the risk of pandering. (Except in certain kinds of very specific non-fiction situations: A book for recovering adult alcoholics, or a book for teachers, or a book on how to be a better gambler.)

Great writing is basically just great communication, and it understands that to last and to make a big impact, you should always speak to the reader's humanity, not to their particular moment. Flannery O’Connor was great because she mastered the art of writing from the inside of her readers. She was very conscious of human psychology and the dynamic process that a reader goes on in a story. She wasn’t thinking about writing for Southerners, or for academics, or even for Christians or unbelievers. She was writing to any one who was engaged in the activity of dodging Divine Grace. Basically all of us.

It would be an interesting meditation to consider what Jesus would find if he walked in to the average Christian Publishing House.

“Good Morning. Welcome to Faith House. We Save Your Stories So You Can Save the World.”

“Thank you. My name is Jesus. I’d like to speak to an editor.”

“Okay. Which editor would you like to see?”

“I’m sorry?”

“What kind of things to you write?”

“Mostly stories.”

“For whom?”

“I’m sorry?”

“For whom are your stories meant?”

“Um, humans?”

“Tell me one of your stories.”

“Oh, okay. Well, there was a man who had two sons. Now, the younger son ---“

“Oh, that’s young adult fiction. That’s Larry. First door down the hall.”

So, the Lord walks down the hall.

“Hello, Mr. Jesus, isn’t it? So I understand you have some stories for us. Tell me one.”

“Okay. One day, a man set off on the road to Jericho. But on the way, he was set upon by thieves. They beat him, stripped him and left him for dead –

“Whoa! Just a sec. This is a bit too much for the young adult market. What else do you have?”

“Well, I have one about a man who owns a vineyard that he had leased out to tenants. And when he sends his son to collect the rent, they kill him and –-
“

“Wait, wait, wait. There you go with that violence stuff again. It’s a bit too much of an edge for us. Do you have any stories where people don’t get killed?”

“Well, yes. I guess. I have one about a woman who loses her gold coin –“

“Great, great! That’s Family Stewardship!”

“And then, she sweeps her whole house to –“

This is Women’s Devotional. That’s Laura down the hall.”


IV. Start with clip from a movie that demonstrates this “writing to the human person” because it speaks to the whole broad audience out there. Tell me, who do you think is the audience of this piece? Here is the opening of “UP.”

V. If an editor tells you to write for a certain demographic, I would nod my head and conclude that they are asking me to be intentionally narrow in my focus. Narrowness is not a descriptor of great writing. (I don’t know about your church, but in the last thirty years mine has gone through an exhausting experimentation process of trying to make special services for “young people”. We’ve been dragged through the antechamber of musical and liturgical hell in pursuit of crowds of keening teenagers who might some day all proclaim with one enthusiastic voice, that this or that service is “cool.” Invariably, the young people demur and if pressed will shrug with a touch of embarrassment that the “Contemporary Worship Service music is kind of, well, lame.” We need to give them more credit that if kids are in Church, they are there as part of the Body of Worshippers and they are willing to join themselves to however the other sheep are bleating. We have a Gregorian Chant revival going on in the Catholic Church….


VI. Idea for this talk came from working with our Act One students – the “problem of commerciality.” Good editors always tell you two seemingly contradictory things:
A) Write what you know, AND
B) What you Write Must Be of Interest to the Market
C) These are not really contradictory

VII. Write What Your Heart Knows
A) What do they mean by, “Write what you know?” I was a nun. I worked in a fish market for a Mormon minister fisherman. I lived in the servants quarters of the Marble House in Newport. I have worked in Hollywood for ten years. I have a family member who is an alcoholic.
B) They mean at one level – DO YOUR HOMEWORK. On this level, editors are bemoaning the writers who literally haven’t earned their place at the table. The writer’s job is to do the research. It is to fill out a new world, or to add fresh details to a world we thought we knew so that we now see it in depth. Research is always doable. It helps me to set a script in Newport, RI because I have already done the research. Don’t set a script in a scuba diving school near the Great Barrier Reef unless you have done your research in the kind of people who become divers, intricacies of scuba gear, diving education approaches, ways divers die, how cool the underwater thing is, Australians, and the Great Barrier Reef. SO, WRITE WHAT YOU HAVE COME TO KNOW ABOUT.

C) But editors and their ilk mean more than this too. Write what you know is an appeal for you to basically write what your soul knows. I was tempted to say “heart” here, particularly because it sounds nice to say “Write What Your heart Knows,” but I mean more than just your emotions. Animals have emotions. Your soul, in the classical sense, is where your intellect, will and desires reside. Your soul is the place where your humanity lives. Write from that place. It is where you brood from – as opposed to just reason. It’s where you dream from. It’s where you suffer from. It’s where you feel remorse from. It is where you choose from. It is where you love from. It is where you pray from. If you write from that place, then you are speaking soul to soul with your reader. Not to “young adults” but to “young souls.” Not even to children but to “baby souls”. Speak to their fundamental condition not to their particular situation. What is it they yearn for? Of you write to kids as if they are yearning for the newest skinny jeans, or the latest iPod, you are dehumanizing them and they will disdain you. Rightly so. These are not truly the things for which a human soul yearns.

D) You speak to human souls through beauty. Using words to achieve wholeness, harmony and radiance are the primary task of the writer. We have to remind ourselves over and over, with Dostoevsky, that it is Beauty that will save the world. Not cleverness. Not cuteness. Not the mere witness to God. (I am going to give a talk this afternoon on What is the Beautiful.)

E) The philosopher Etienne Gilson says that beauty is in more than just wholeness, harmony and radiance. He says there is also style, originality and universality. Style has to do with talent. Originality has to do with a new thought. Universality has to do with the fact that it speaks to thoughtful people beyond their time or culture. Don’t write a jealous character until you have something unique to say about jealousy. Or at least, a fresh way of showing us how it looks when it is asking for the salt shaker at dinner. Don’t write about the power of art. Write about the way the purple paint feels on the fingers of the three year old as she smears it with wonder across the new white carpet in the living room. Don’t write about friendship until you have something profound to say about friendship. Or at least, how it looks on Joe’s seven year old face the first time his “ Mike” best friend opts to throw the ball to Matt the fourth grader instead of Joe.

VIII. What is Mass Appeal? My sister and her husband stand at the movie theater. They look up and read the movies. “What’s playing?” “Well, there’s an indie movie about two sisters who were abused—“ What else is playing? “Fire and Ice…” “That sounds interesting.” “It’s about two guys on a cooking show who .” “What else?” “There’s that new drama , House of Love and Pain.” “What else?” “Me, Myself and Irene.” “What’s that?” It’s a comedy – about a guy with split personalities. And they are both in love with the same woman.” That’s funny. Let’s try that.

IX. Commerciality – that is the quality that makes an editor shove other editors out of the way to have lunch with you, is found in the intersection of “What Your Soul Knows” with the most pressing cries of the world of this moment.

X. What is the cry of this world? Maybe start by asking what was the cry of the world in 1968? What were the mantras of the age? What are the mantras of this age? “Whatever.” “Don’t trust anybody over 50.” “My mother is my best friend.” “The American Dream is dead.” “That is so five minutes ago.”

XII. Having said all the above about opposing narrow demographics, it seems to me to be perfectly appropriate to size up the souls who are out there, so that you can address them with intentionality. We are living in a moment of generational change. Nobody is perfectly defined by their generation. They are defined by the choices they have made. It tells me almost nothing at all about him if you say that your character, Johnny is the son of a serial killer. In the same way, it tells me nothing if you say Suzy is the daughter of a pastor. You begin to tell me something about Johnny when you note that he generally slips his snack to the poor kid in the class.

XIII. I am thinking a lot about the choices made by many people in the Boomer Generation, and from a pastoral sense, what they need to hear now so that they will cleave to God in their final years.

A) The Boomer Soul reality: Disillusioned. They say things like, “I long for unconditional love, but it doesn’t exist. Life is a cruel joke.” “I wish I hadn’t had that choice.” “Don’t fret! Life begins at 70!” Many are coming around to tremendous guilt. Many are without real bonds of family because of divorce, abortion, various kinds of disassociation and clamoring after unfetteredness. What looks like being free in your vigorous years, looks very much like loneliness in your twilight years. Still outraged. Still fighting against the man. Probably, having their stored up riches jerked out from under them. Hence, very angry at how unfair it all is.

B) What do they need to hear? “While there is life, there is hope.” There is still time to be the elders. Accept that death is coming and prepare for it with grace and generosity. Don’t try to compete with those who have youth. Be unfashionable and slower and sicker and tired. Be gray haired and a little dry. Learn to pause and sit, and stop having to be looking to be recreating the Woodstock thing every other year in your life. Realize that it isn’t all about you, but that there is a lot of joy in making life about the people.

XIV. A) The Millenial reality: Worried. Unmotivated. Resentful. Entitled. Under-educated. Lazy. Impatient. Paralyzed. They are a generation that has been bred on having easy, fast solutions. (Airplane story.)

B) What do they need to hear? Perseverance is possible. Commitment is possible. Suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to you – the loss of your humanity is much worse. The best things take time. Think abut it. At a certain point, we are all equally unlovable to each other. We are only worth it to each other because we are worth it to God. Family is something that lasts through effort. Babies haven’t changed, even as mommies continue to change.

XIV. In conclusion, I would say that as writers, we shouldn’t try so hard to be relevant as if that was something outside of ourselves, over there on a shelf. The fundmental relevance is human nature. What it longs for. What it is innately directed towards. Your Our effort should be, as JPII expressed it, to create new epiphanies of beauty that will remind your readers what it is to be truly human. And make them long for their true nature. And love it in a way which will be gratitude to the Creator.

Have We Forgotten?

[Note from Barb: This is something I wrote in the weeks following 9/11. It seems appropriate to repost it now amidst the background of the 9/11 Mosque debate. I think it would have seemed insane to me then, that we are having this debate now. And I would have been right.]



"No One Here Is Working Today"

Annoyance: “This better not be a wrong number.” Negotiation: “Better a wrong number than bad news.” And finally amazement: So many thoughts can crowd the human mind so fast. Then, all of these get jumbled around in suspended animation until the voice on the other end settles things.

“Sorry to wake you. Turn on your TV. There has been a terrible accident in New York.” Susannah, a friend from the office was doing her part to rouse the West Coast. Hanging up, I flip on the television. If only I could have back a few more of those minutes before horror invaded and changed everything.

It is still early into the horror of 9-11, but I am already afraid of forgetting. The certainty that time deadens every sensation seems itself to be one more blow to add to the terrorist sucker-punch. Then, I am afraid of never forgetting. The thought that civilization could be forever altered by hate is a devastating concession to the negative. Civilizations should be substantially altered by the good – by the inventiveness of the human mind, or by a growth in understanding.

One of the towers of the World Trade Center billows smoke. Katie and Matt try to make sense of it for me. I’m not sure it’s worth waking up my roommate over. Someone’s stupidity and a lot of people end up dying. The 1993 WTC bombing flashes through my mind. “What is it with those buildings?” Mental note: Never accept a job in a landmark. Another plane trolls into the back of the other Tower. I see it before Matt. Because he doesn’t comment, I start to wonder if it really happened. Maybe it is a helicopter circling around. But then Matt starts to stammer. It has happened again. This is no accident.



9-11 has been called this generation’s Pearl Harbor. This comparison has to do with the shock that invaded American society, and then became a battle cry to marshall a nation. The resemblance stops there. How I envy the Greatest Generation their Pearl Harbor. The enemy was known. The task was clear. The end was in sight even by sunset on that first terrible day. America knew victory would be costly, but victory itself was never in doubt.

Still in our pajamas an hour later, my roommate and I watch quietly as both towers tumble down in quick jerks and starts. They look like dominoes. A lesson from childhood invades. As long as they are lined up, every domino will fall down. And they do. The perfect symmetry of the astonishing towers renders their complete collapse a certainty. I have an appointment this morning to edit together a video of ‘haunting moment’ film clips. I know with certainty that the Towers collapsing will haunt me till the end of my life. Calling to cancel the session, I find strange comfort in the dull grief of the receptionist who takes my message. “No, no one here is working today.” Could anything be so irrelevant as Hollywood? Will I ever again find a movie haunting?




The Hour of Heroes and Saints

Our street borders on the usually bustling region of the city known as the Hollywood hamlet. Tonight, there is an eerie stillness. Several pedestrians pass me on the sidewalk. Each time we avert our eyes from each other. We have all been surprised by grief and it is embarrassing to have been caught unawares. We were all buying and selling and going about our business, and meanwhile groups of people have been hating us and in their simmering anger have been plotting our deaths.
I have heard people say that 9-11 shattered our sense of security. Rather, 9-11 shattered our illusion of security. There can be no security in a world in which there is sin.

I reach the corner impressed by the deathly quiet. I turn and face the row of restaurants expecting to see them all empty. But no, the street cafes all overflow with people. Solemn people. Grieving people. Frightened lonely people. Some few speak in hushed voices. As I pass along the sidewalk, hundreds follow me with their eyes. They too are out desperately seeking distraction.

Just up ahead, a young woman appears on the corner holding a lit candle. Must be an actress. Too thin. Too blond. A passing car lays on its horn in a sign of support. Before long, hundreds more stragglers join her vigil. They sing “God Bless America” crying and staring into the passing traffic. More and more cars add their horns to the strange cacophony. Once again I weep. But I am glad too. I suddenly feel close to these strangers.

My whole life I have never been able to bear “God Bless America” without tears. I have always thought it a curious quirk because I am not sentimental. Now, every hymn about God or country brings with it the sensation of holding back waves of emotion. It is so pathetic. “He had compassion on the crowd for they were like sheep without a shepherd.” I am so tired of weeping.

For the fourth time in two days, an Evangelical Protestant friend calls me with a variation on a single question. “What are we to do? What does the Catholic Church say?” I put my own confusion on auto-pilot. Somebody needs what was invested in me years ago. I draw on my Great Books education, once again grateful for my long-suffering professor’s insistence that thirteenth century philosophical principles are eternally relevant. I lay out for them the standards that the Church labels “Double Effect.” They are comforted.

Even in the horrible darkness inflicted by a brutal sucker-punch, Americans are still concerned to do what is right. Very striking in the aftermath is the universal desire of our people to respond with justice to injustice. There are few if any voices of revenge, and these are silenced immediately by the grief that has given to all of us a new gravity. This is not the time for reprisals.

For all her failures, the Church is still regarded as a voice of moral authority. Especially by those outside of her embrace. My non-Catholic friends call me because, as one put it, “I know the Catholic Church must have some teaching for times like this.” And he was right. We are allowed a proportional response. We are allowed to remove instruments of evil from children who would harm others through them, even if some die while we remove those instruments. We are not allowed vindictiveness. We are not allowed hate.

God only permitted this because in the span of eternity, He could handle it. He can weave out of it more good than evil in the long run. I have had a treasured bookmark since I was in the fourth grade. Mrs. Pierce, my religion teacher gave it to me and I have managed to hang onto it throughout the years. “The hour of crisis is also the hour of heroes and saints.” There were only a handful of evildoers. There are so many hundreds of heroes.


Will God Return to Us Now?

My friend Sylvia is a reporter and a friend of NYC’s Chief of Police. He told her months later that they knew by noon of the attack day that there would be no survivors to find in the rubble of the World Trade Center. The rescue efforts were a ruse instigated by Mayor Giulani to give the city time to get counselors in place and to let families adjust to the possibility of loss. I remember that Sylvia, who had lost a network news job in an Insider-like scenario, was as grateful as I for the lie.



I imagine 9-11 is better compared to Bull Run, or Gettysburg or any of the bloody battles of the Civil War. The enduring source of dull pain comes from the certainty that the enemy is not fighting for territory, but for ideology. It must have felt very futile to many Americans to fight over an idea like personhood. You can’t change a person’s mind by winning a battle. As long as one person is unconvinced, the evil lurks and has power. The Civil War did not resolve the issue of racism as the evils of Reconstruction and segregation proved. Legally, it took over a hundred years to realize the victory of Appomattox. How long both black and white America will suffer the long-term effects of slavery is anyone’s guess.

“The Pentagon? What is that about?” For the hundredth time this morning I am confused. “Alright, I’ve had enough. What the hell is going on?” I look at my roommate for answers but she has none. Neither does CNN, FOX, MSNBC or any of the networks. Waves of anger shake off the grip of shock. “Who did this? Why don’t they take credit for it?” We keep making trips to the refrigerator like movie fans at an all day horror marathon. Food is comforting.



Theoretically, an ideology could be stamped out by literally wiping out all of its adherents. Hence, the suggestion raised by some pundits that we should carpet bomb Afghan mountains. But who are we kidding? Who are the adherents of this kind of hatred against sky-scrapers and airline passengers? My sense is that they are many. I’ve been educated through the years by periodic news footage of Islamic boys dancing and chanting with rage at strange effigies and burning American flags. The impotence of their demonstrations has often struck me as obscene. Naked rage like any human nakedness should not be exposed in the marketplace.



Ideology can only be overcome by conversion. Conversion takes a long time and patience. You only bother to convert someone who is worth it to you. It is so much easier just to kill them. If only we could kill them all. But I am horrified by the thought even as it flashes across my mind. We wouldn’t kill them all even if we could. We are not them.

A reporter interviews a priest in front of the rubble. The priest’s black garb is strangely gray with the pulverized dust of the Towers. There are particles of thousands of people in that dust. After a few preliminary questions, the reporter forgets his training and his humanity spills out at the foot of the rubble mountain. “How could God let this happen, Father?” The priest is moved by the man’s grief and touches his arm. Just then, God interjects. Four firemen carry a wounded man on a stretcher in the background. The priest points at the pile of rubble, “This isn’t God.” He points at the rescuers and their burden, “That is.” The reporter weeps in a strange kind of relief, “Yes. You’re right. Thank you, Father.” I weep too. What has happened here?

I resent every effort to glean lessons from 9-11. We don’t sit at the mouth of hell for instruction. The only lesson is to convict us that there is a mouth of hell and that were it not for the presence of a greater good, we would all be swallowed by the darkness.

Prayer everywhere. Prayer on Capitol Hill. In a display that was unthinkable just a week ago, now Daschel, Kennedy, Lott and Armey linked arm-in-arm sing “God Bless America” on the Capitol steps. The President calls for national prayer services. Thousands of neophyte believers stream into the Church where I work for a time of prayer at noon on the 14th. The minister directs them to sing a song in one of the hymnals. In front of me, a row of leather clad professionals from the studio down the hill look at each other in confusion. “What is a hymnal?” I am weeping again.

Has God abandoned us? The bizarre spectacle of our public officials suddenly leading us all in prayer reveals the truth. We are not used to prayer in public. We have abandoned God. Will He return to us now? Are prayers issued in fear and terror heard? Will God be fooled? Ah, but He knows we are sheep. The Shepherd does not sneer at the sheep who bleat in fear during a storm.



It is finally night and the cameras in NYC relent in their ceaseless combing of Ground Zero. I need to distract myself until morning when we can count on more televised pictures to fill the hours. Walking outside, the loveliness of the warm L.A. evening strikes me as unfair and inappropriate. Just then a police helicopter surges overhead sweeping the street with a bright light. For the next several weeks, the helicopters are constantly overhead. Everyone who works in Hollywood is absolutely sure the industry is on a terrorist hit list somewhere. Lots of people in entertainment are weathering intense survivor guilt. “It’s our fault they hate us.”


God Bless America Indeed


Some last impressions of the time that I wish to never forget.

The President walks out alone to the mound at Yankee Stadium. Before the eyes of the world, he stands vulnerable. Takes his time, and sights the catcher and pitches a perfect strike to open the World Series…

Those firemen and policemen stay in Tower One even after Tower Two collapses. They continue to race upward. The gravelly last words of one such hero pours out of a brother’s walkie-talkie, “There are still people up there. We can’t leave them.”

The passengers on Flight 93 become aware that they are being used as human missiles. They take a vote.



To the last Americans. De Toqueville had written two hundred years ago about this strange propensity of Americans, “They think that any problem can be solved if only they get together and take a vote.” They decide to die so that other Americans will be spared.

Freedom makes heroism possible. The essence of heroism is in exercising a choice. The hero’s choice is to prefer another’s life to his own. Aristotle wrote that because the state exists to allow men to become virtuous, freedom with all of its pitfalls must be preferred, because there is no virtue without choice. We had become cynical about our countrymen, but the events of 9-11 have surprised us all. We are still more than decadent. Our instincts are still to save life, to give to those in need, to draw together in times of tragedy, to do the right thing even when those who oppose us operate under no such limits.

One last recollection. It is late in September. Fairfax Boulevard is typically frenzied with traffic and pedestrians. Approaching a crowded cross street, I see a plastic car flag flapping through the air, landing in the middle of the intersection. And then a miracle happens. The car ahead of me stops in front of the green light. Hazard lights flash and then a middle-aged woman emerges grim and resolute. She makes her way toward the flag, walking in the center of the intersection. All the cars slide to a stop. Windows are rolled down and a gathering applause fills the air. The woman picks up the flag and pivoting around to all of us, she waves it high in the air. Car horns add quick pulses to the applause as she walks back to her car. As traffic starts up, I am weeping again.

Flags are our new vigil lights. Every flag that waves is suddenly a prayer that America will recall the blessings of God. Freedom, not license. Community not diversity. Prosperity to make virtue possible. Speech to utter the truth. Opportunity to advance human potential and achievement. God bless America indeed.