- Awhile back, I wrote about a dream I had. In the dream,
I was given the job of rewriting a television soap opera that had gone
in the wrong direction. Bad stories. Dull characters. Unsatisfying denouements.
-
- Dreams usually don't have themes, but this one did. I
had a very clear realization that the TV show I was supposed to rewrite
wasn't a show at all, but rather human history and the state of the Earth
itself, which, when you think about it (and, probably, even when you don't)
have gone terribly wrong.
-
- Being a laid-back old boy spending as much time as possible
doing as little as possible here in the mountains of Paradise, my first
thought when I awoke was, "I quit."
-
- My second thought was, "Wait! Who am I to say no
to such a gig? The universe must think I know something. All I've got to
do is figure out what."
-
- But large as my ego is, it still wasn't up to plunging
headlong into world-saving mode.
-
- I couldn't get past the concern that even if I knew what
to do, how would I do it alone? How does one man "rewrite" destiny?
How does one member of the tribe reach out to all of troubled humanity
and ease its suffering and pain?
-
- So I copped out.
-
- I changed the pronoun "I" to "we,"
and did what my mother was always trying to get me to do back when I was
a kid.
-
- That's right. I shared. I threw the question out to the
readers of this space and asked, as clearly as I could, "What should
we do to put everything right?"
-
- And got hundreds of replies.
-
- One of the first was from a Texan named Jim, who looked
at the situation from a political perspective.
-
- "What entity is the major creator of strife?"
he asked. "What entity forces its inhabitants to fight in wars? taxes
its citizens into poverty? creates laws which force its inhabitants into
jails? I am forced to pay my taxes to support wars of aggression. How
will I answer St. Peter when he asks why I continued to support the slaughter?"
-
- Then he quieted down a bit, and as I read the e-mail
I could see his shy smile. "You got to me today, and touched a nerve."
-
- Heather, who seems to really know her stuff, took a more
cosmic view. She sent me the Earth's astrological chart. The entire history
of mankind on this planet, showing where it's been and where it might go,
noting that, "The rewrite won't be easy. It may not even be possible."
-
- At which point I thought, in that showbiz kinda way,
"Hey, that's why they pay us writer-producers all those big bucks!"
-
- A thoughtful gentleman named Doug looked at the situation
in a writerly way. "Are we allowed to alter human nature, or is that
cheating?" he asked. "(I think we should get extra credit for
altering human nature.) Otherwise, it seems to me the plot is doomed from
the start by the apparent inherent ingrained Id-driven emotions."
-
- The beautifully named Octavia had a more contemporary
take on the issue.
-
- "I talk[ed] with a friend of mine about various
abstract conceptual (game theory) agendas played through regarding the
ending and the beginning of our world currently at play. So many players
so many different levels; and then I realized I can be the machine and
programmer and the player and the ball."
-
- "We have to write the continuity to get beyond
this level [and] fulfill our human capabilities," she concluded.
-
- Then there was Mike, who keeps his eyes on the stars.
He suggested I do some research into the "Intelligent Design"
of our planet by designers who also were interplanetary travelers because,
he wrote, quoting the actor Michael York, "if this is science fiction
it ranks alongside the most breathtaking of its kind. If it is true it
is earthshaking.' So if you want a good script [for the rewrite] you win
either way."
-
- Still uncertain of how to handle my/our task, I went
outside and faced the wind.
-
- "How do we make the world better?" I said.
-
- "You already are," the wind replied with a
gust. "The word is out. Now everyone knows there's a job to do. Can't
you feel their concerns swirling all around?"
-
- I can. I do.
-
- And for once I think I understand the wind.
-
- Because I feel how the very fact of questioning can change
everything.
-
-
- Copyright C 2008 by Larry Brody. All rights reserved.
-
-
- 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 <mailto:LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org>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.
|
