That Place You Love: Real People. Real Stories.
Round-Up on Patience; Next-Up Barbie. Cracking the Narrative & Welcome!
I’m a slow-news, channel surfing, Gen-X’er…
Whenever I read a news headline or watch a news channel, I’m distracted by the hypocrisy of topics that butt up against each other.
I’ve chosen a slow-news diet because my analytical brain turns topics over and over for weeks, and I get pissed off. I prefer to read news in retrospect, once the jury is back and sources have been investigated.
I’m in no hurry with the news. Even the weather channel gets it wrong.
It’s similar with entertainment.
I have access to streaming services, but I prefer to channel surf and wonder why three Sandra Bullock films are playing at the same time on different channels.
Hoping to land on a movie right as the studio or production company logo presents itself, I’ll watch anything until it becomes unwatchable.
Last night, I saw Die Hard for the first time in its completion.
My analytical mind started to crack the narrative. (I’m sure film scholars have already written about Die Hard, but I’m also a slow-Googler and don’t care).
Die Hard is a feminist cautionary tale.
Bruce Willis’ wife has surpassed him professionally. He’s a New York Cop. She’s some kind of Senior VP of a multinational company.
Because she left him for California, started using her maiden name, and earning hundreds of thousands, a building needs to be taken over, people killed, and Bruce has to save her… after a heartfelt apology by proxy where he…
Admits to not supporting her.
Acknowledges he’s said I love you more than I’m sorry.
Yippee Ki Yay, indeed.
Once the underlying narrative is understood, I accept the genre.
I take this into my own work.
I’m writing a sports film right now, but it’s really a story of a family, a town, and America’s decline in the late 20th century.
Stay tuned…
Round Up on Patience & New Theme - Barbie - below!
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7 Contributors weighed in on PATIENCE:
I wrote about the freedom of my childhood summers in Maine and how I the regularity of the tides taught me to be patient.
(in order of appearance)
New Contributor Georgi writes about the liminal space between anticipation, waiting, and the shoe dropping, patience as a form of living in the moment.
Laura O is grateful for patience when it serves its purpose, pushing through childbirth or a track workout, and sees it as the antidote for wanting to escape.
Carole D cites the Stanford Marshmallow Test, which tests the trust relationship with the promise-maker for the reward of patience, and acknowledges that a cream cheese filled celery stalk holds the same power as a marshmallow.
Debbie K acknowledges the limit of patience, when it becomes impatience, and proposes that wanting to control everything is a challenge for patience.
Karen E compares impatience with objects and tasks to infinite patience with autistic children overcoming the frustration of expressing what’s on their minds.
Intact Animal writes about risk, when too much patience becomes apathy and leads us down a road of self-destruction and an untimely death. RIP UB.
Melissa S suggests years of craft-building could have been a distraction from the patience needed to commit to being present for the one craft she loves most.
READ & HEART this week’s writers & SHARE your own story in the comments.
Contributor Pascale went back to LOYALTY to write about being wrongly overtaken in a race and wonders if loyalty to unspoken rules can be broken.
(Click on the unique theme hyperlink above to read Pascale’s story).
Next Up: BARBIE
On Monday, I’ll write about Barbie through the lens of truth. How is Barbie a theme? Barbie, like all brands, represents manufactured ideals packaged to sell.
Barbie is a product, just like Apple, Bud Light, and Oxycodone.
The success of a product relies on marketing AKA the narrative.
Once you crack the narrative, can you accept the product?
Where does BARBIE take you? (It doesn’t have to be about the doll.)
Read & Share on Monday!
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More to come on Monday….
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely, for real.
Michelle