For 13 years she has served as Washington D.C’s first female diocesan bishop. She is the Bishop of Washington’s National Cathedral and as part of her dominion tradition, she held a service for the incoming President. No matter your faith or what country you live in, her words and request of that sermon are words of basic human decency; nothing out of the ordinary for a congregation of decent humans. And her steadfast commitment to refuse to apologia for human decency is nothing short of heroic to those of us who desperately need a hero now.
In less than one week, the greatest country in the world has reverted to the ideology of the greatest evil our world has ever known; it is truly the stuff of cinema — but sadly is not fiction. This is a time when our voices and stories matter more than ever.
But at the core of Bishop Budde’s compassionate plea for humanity, is a brilliant character study in cinematic conflict. Watching the unqualified president elect, his immigrant wife, his spineless and fraudulent VP and wife born into citizenship from immigrant parents, and all of his long blonde extension-addled bimbo daughters and in-laws and cocaine-addled sons, squirm in their seats as the Bishop asked a simple act of mercy for human decency, could not have been captured more powerfully from Spielberg or Scorsese.
I have watched that clip so many times to see the silent uncomfortable seething that the misinformed populace has entrusted with our future elected, it is both joyous and heartbreaking at once, and a master class in storytelling. The demand that the bishop apologize and her refusal to do so is not even the point. The cinematic beauty of it, is the sweet melodic sermon that held the heathens captive in a confined space, to squirm and feel the power of her every word. The squirms indicative of hearts knowing they have been caught and are being called out for all to see. The perfect way to take down an adversary.
In dark times we need to find the bright spots, and the helpers.
Never in a million years did any of us imagine one would emerge from the National Cathedral’s inaugural prayer service. And unlike every other branch in D.C. that is being dismantled and reduced to joke status, the Bishop cannot be fired by the insane president elect she so perfectly made squirm.
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Good points above. And yet -- we humans do keep telling the same concepts over and over with different takes for different times. Researching my book and presentations on: "BEYOND THE HERO'S JOURNEY -...
Expand commentGood points above. And yet -- we humans do keep telling the same concepts over and over with different takes for different times. Researching my book and presentations on: "BEYOND THE HERO'S JOURNEY - Other Powerful Mythic Themes" made that really clear. You can find the principles with examples explained well also in mythologist Joseph Campbell's works, as well as Robert Graves and Stephen Fry. The trick is to well cover those two essential elements of effective story-telling -- Familiarity and Surprise. / Best of luck to all of you re-telling some of our fave myths in many different ways, from different perspectives, with different messages, styles, and such. We're all after better stories and "mythology is where they keep a lot of the best stories".
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I'd say don't worry about what an exec feels, wants, believes, and seeks. I believe every writer is different in the way they approach a subject, whether identical or not; just like we're all equipped...
Expand commentI'd say don't worry about what an exec feels, wants, believes, and seeks. I believe every writer is different in the way they approach a subject, whether identical or not; just like we're all equipped with a different set of finger prints, is what will make your concept different. I say write about your experience. Write about what you know, about what you see, what you feel, and think...because we're all different in our own ways; and that's when an Exec will find your concept to be different. You and I can wear the same suit, but the color shirt I wear, tie or no tie, pocket square or not, is what will make me stand apart from how we both wear the suit, and how the exec sees us both, identically, different.
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First, Nice post! In my opinion (if I may) I do not focus on anything industry when I write. My focus is on the Story/Script/Piece itself. I do not worry about opinions (That creates writer's block and disturbs the flow). In my opinion.
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Matthew Kelcourse, that's what reading the biographies really teaches you. What's revered now was typically rejected early on. The last chapter of my book is dedicated to critics that slammed the most popular films in movie making history.
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If you've been around this game long enough, you worked on duds, for whatever reasons.
Im old and I remember when Bonfire of the Vanities was considered the greatest novel of the 20th century. The writ...
Expand commentIf you've been around this game long enough, you worked on duds, for whatever reasons.
Im old and I remember when Bonfire of the Vanities was considered the greatest novel of the 20th century. The writer, Tom Wolfe, was treated like a god in New York. It was a cant miss movie...All star cast & crew...and audiences- before there was internet or rotten tomato reviews- didnt show up to buy tickets. That's show bizness :)