More proof that God exists

I heard a clamor outside the house (we had our windows open so to let in cool air), and saw a tow truck towing a car. They already had it loaded up on the truck, and they were setting the chains and straps. I've heard lots of negative things about tow truck companies and how "merciless" they can be in dealing with victims of towed cars in that a victim can have a dire emergency and the tow-ers wouldn't give a damn. Anyway, I was merely intrigued in seeing what was going on. I was there for about 30 seconds, and they looked up and saw me at the window. I left right after that, realizing that I didn't need to inhibit in their merciless duty. After all, half the streets in my neighborhood were getting swept the next day, and I could see if they were clearing the roads early (although I've just gotten a ticket for parking in such a zone once), or basically some other semi-logical reason. Anyway, about a minute later I went back to the window and was a bit surprised to see the car back on the street, in the spot it had been previously. I then went to another window and heard them talking about moving it to another, more legal spot. I observed them push into the car into that spot. In pondering the sequence of events, I wonder if I had an influence on their decision to return the car to the spot. If I wasn't so curious to see what the racket was, some neighbor of mine would sure have been pissed.

People generally think God works only in the hearts of good, wholesome people. I think that's true most of the time, as those people are the most open to alternate views and decisions. But, sometimes on occasion He will reach the harder hearts of people fit for cold-blooded jobs. Whether or not He changes their hearts entirely, even if He succeeds for a minute or two, the world is a slightly happier and more relaxed place to be.

Films of the North(side of Chicago)

An invitation to a film festival brought back memories of my filmmaking interim freshman year in high school. A vagabond trio of at least temporary fanatics, we created two short films that generated more rave reviews than the other group (of about 7 people) that created their own film as part of the weekly project.

The first one we did was titled "Stop all Commercialism," and basically it was a series of silly ways to express our views of the endless advertisements so dutifully crammed onto our TV sets during and between shows and other broadcasted events. We had a scene of us painting the title, followed by random clips of commercials that happened to be on TV that day, and a hilarious animation of four rocketships zeroing in on a can of pop, causing it to explode on contact.

The other, which didn't take nearly as much work to film, was titled "Nathan Uses the Force." Basically I walked around secretively in my winter coat (Interim Week took place in November, so it wasn't unbearable to walk around in it), and I went to an indoor balcony and brought out my DoughBoy effigy. I dropped it over the edge, and then had to use some magical power to bring it back into my hand (thanks to Ben, the film brain, they had me drop it again and we just recorded it in reverse), put it back into my coat, and I walked out of the building. [Not to mention we changed the picture to black-and-white after editing.]

Alongside the songwriting workshop I participated in Interim Week of my senior year, the filmmaking was my favorite project. Although I can't really complain about any of the interim projects I did... after all, the other two years I painted a mural and studied comic books. So I can easily say Interim Week was my favorite part of the school year.

...which brings me to tonight. Ian IM'ed me and invited me to a film festival at his school a mere few hours before it actually started. Getting a chance to hang out with one of my friends, I was happy to go, but I was also hoping to watch one of the films that he created from his Colloquim period project.

Unfortunately, some other people in his group somehow sabotaged the film, so it never got shown. The films that were shown, however, ranged from pretty good to kind of crappy. So, in order not to hurt anyone's feelings, I shall comment on only one film. It was titled "1,000 Satellites" and it at least had somewhat of a plot. It's hard to say what all happened, as it had sophisticated music in the background, almost no dialogue, and interesting written messages stuck throughout the whole film (both within and in-between scenes). Suffice to say, it was well put-together, and it had some decent humor.

So anyway, I finally got to visit Northside Prep High School, where Ian just graduated, and where the film festival was held.

Credits and Emotions

Wow. Way better than last year, mostly due to the much lighter (and happier) mood surrounding the past choir year. Congratulations to Mark, Jenny, Lovik and Adrian on their adventures to their respective colleges. And, many thanks to a couple of great friends over the past few years, Ian and Si, for delivering probably the best couple of choir banquet senior speeches I'd heard in quite some time, and for helping me through my senior year a couple years ago.

That was the choir banquet that my ex-church had held at the end of each choir year for about a decade. I remember, with each passing year, eagerly anticipating delivering my speech, sharing with the crowd before me my happy experiences in the choir, and thanking the people that helped me grow, both friends and adults. Then some crazy stuff happened at the church that left me bitter (I may detail in future posts), and when it came time to write my speech the following spring, I was just completely shot of my happiness in trying to detail everything I had wanted to share. So, long story short, I wrote a speech but never delivered it, and again I was filled with this combination of bitterness and sickness due to the lingering culture that cause the church to crumble in the first place.

So where am I going with this? Several of the speeches that were delivered tonight were pretty much the type of speech I always wanted to deliver, ones full of happiness and reminiscence, and gratitude. At the same time, listening for the first time to people of younger years than I delivering their speeches, I felt like that guy who was in a coma while the Red Sox won the World Series. I felt like I completely missed out, as if I didn't actually graduate, even though I am officially an alumnus. So where do I take this new emotional information? Do I store it in the back of my head, hoping to forget it forever, or do I live with it, understanding that I did indeed graduate from the choir, but without doing what I had wanted to do most for many years? That is the issue with which I have to grapple. But, at the same time, I keep living my life, and I keep in contact with those friends that I made through the choir and the church.

Once, again, congrats to the graduates, and thanks for making it a better event than what I had to endure a year ago.