- I'm in Amber mode today.
-
- As in Youngest Daughter Amber, the dangerously
beautiful young woman who more than any of our other kids reminds me of
- well, of me.
-
- We think alike. We aspire alike. We rant
and rave alike. Most of the time the similarities make for a lot of fun.
But they can be frightening as well.
-
- The reason Amber's on my mind today is
that she's transferring colleges. Leaving the Art Institute of San Francisco,
where she's been majoring in creating video games, and entering the San
Francisco Art Institute, where she'll be part of the world of what academicians
call "fine art."
-
- Gwen the Beautiful, Amber, and I talked
about it over the phone last week. "The two schools only sound the
same," Amber said. "The old one's all about making a living.
But I've got to be creative. I've got to be free!"
-
- This was upsetting because I was very
proud of Amber when she started on her video game road. It seemed made
for her not only because she's brilliant and talented (if I do say so myself),
with the potential to raise this new playing field to new heights, but
also because the school flat-out guarantees every graduate a job.
-
- Not that it was the first time we'd ever
disagreed. We had a similar situation when we moved to Paradise.
-
- We arrived here during the summer. Amber
was only 17 and had been raised in Southern California for most of her
life. Still, she tried her best to fit in here. She loved the property.
The animals. The sky. She found a place that was hers down at our pond
and spent hours there talking to the cedars.
-
- Amber made friends. Went to parties.
Appreciated that they were just like parties back in L.A., celebrations
of music and bravado and, yes, teenage pain.
-
- She saw the truth: Teenagers are the
same everywhere.
-
- And the greater truth: All people are
the same.
-
- A few things put her off. First was when
a group of girls told her she shouldn't dress the way she did. "You're
wearing bright colors. We never do that. It's so tacky, the way the boys
are looking at you."
-
- The second troublesome thing was the
chawing. The teenage boy who was Paradise's hot catch at the time came
by thinking he'd impress her with how far he could spit. Funny thing. Eight
feet of brown tobacco slime didn't push the right buttons. Amber got him
back into his truck - fast.
-
- The third strike came when she was talking
to another boy, getting ready to leave for college. "What's your major?"
Amber said.
-
- "Metal work," he told her.
-
- "Like sculpture? What a great thing
to do!"
-
- The boy looked puzzled. "Metal sculpture?
Why would I do that? I've got the talent to do something important. I can
build fences strong enough to hold the biggest bull."
-
- And that was it. Paradise's fate was
sealed.
-
- "Can you believe that? He blew off
art!" Amber told us.
-
- "He's got other things to worry
about," I said. "Survival "
-
- "Human beings need art in order
to survive," Amber said. "Art takes us away from the bad parts
of reality. It lets us heal, and helps us grow."
-
- "I know, baby. What I'm saying is
-"
-
- "What I'm saying is I'm so out of
here!"
-
- Off Amber went, back to live with relatives
and finish out her senior year. We missed her like crazy. You wouldn't
believe the phone bills.
-
- Now she's in San Francisco, making another
move that causes me concern.
-
- On the one hand, Amber's 21 and on her
own, learning exactly what she wants to learn, the way she wants to learn
it.
-
- On the other hand, she's taking a big
risk, gambling on her future in a way that doesn't pay off for most people.
-
- "Meh!" she said over the phone
when I pointed that out. "It paid off for you."
-
- I love my dangerously beautiful daughter
and am even prouder of her now than I was before. Through Amber, I've come
to understand that one person's paradise can be another's middle of nowhere.
And vice versa, of course.
-
- And that to live a good life what you've
got to be best at is being yourself.
- Especially when - even when we think
we're on opposite sides - she's still being just like me.
-
-
- Copyright C 2006 by Larry Brody. For
permission to reprint this column, please write to LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org.
-
- ******
-
- Author Larry Brody's weekly column, LIVE!
FROM PARADISE! appears on his website, www.larrybrody.com. He has written
thousands of hours of network television, and is the author of "Television
Writing from the Inside Out" and "Turning Points in Television."
Brody is Creative Director of The Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, the
world's first in-residence media colony. More about his activities can
be seen on www.tvwriter.com and www.cloudcreek.org. He welcomes your comments
and feedback at LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org. Brody, his wife and their dogs,
cats, horses and chickens live in Marion County, Arkansas. The other residents
of the mythical town of Paradise reside in his imagination.
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