When the lens goes all funny...
EXT: Close up - front car windshield - Day
Rain is pouring down in buckets. Wipers are on high. Everything is a grey blurr.
Off screen we hear two voices.
MAN
Keep your hands on the wheel. Firm.
WOMAN
I can’t see.
CUT TO:
INT: middle aged couple in front seat of car.
WOMAN
(leaning forward, clinging the wheel)
Just barely the bumper of the car in front.
MAN
(calm, upright, steady gaze)
Just keep driving. K E E P D R I V I N G.
I remember it so well. We were on the thruway driving back from the country. We were half way home when what had been the suggestion of a normal drizzly morning turned into a blinding downpour. “Keep driving.”
That phrase ‘keep driving’ came to me again when in the first weeks after my husband, Irv, died, I didn’t know the difference between night and day leave alone the future. I stuck Post-Its all over the house with the words KEEP DRIVING. It is was kept me going.
This moment feels like that. Something strange is lurking among us and we don’t know how to fight it. Life itself is tenuous. The ribbons have come untied. The world is in free-fall and we are all partners in this experiment called living. Some are more challenged than others. Markets are plummeting. Leaders are failing us. The shelves are empty. For millions it is a life changer. Lost jobs. Lost income. Kids to care for. It’s a challenge. A huge giant challenge. There’s social distancing and there’s the big one…I S O L A T I O N.
On the bright side, and there is ALWAYS a bright side… isolation is a writers coveted environment.
It is a writers instinct to write. When we’re in love, when we’re inspired by beauty. It is also what we turn to when confusion abounds or despair creeps in. So instead, turn it around and let the moment feed you. Take on the challenge and grapple with a character you’ve never thought about before. Or a project that drove you to despair until you put is aside. Maybe now is the time to give it one more try. You might surprise yourself. As writers we are right at home with isolation. We need it to do our best work.
For the last few weeks our email inboxes have been full of suggestions of films to watch online, the list is endless…but hey…why not write one yourself. Hmmm a horror movie would be too easy. A fuzzy, cuddly one, also too easy… but possibly a welcome balm. What ever it is, take advantage of the moment. What about an animated film for children? I have the perfect characters right here in my backyard. A foursome, two different species of ducks: Mr. and Mrs. Noisemaker and Mrs. and Mr. Plop. Go ahead, my gift to you. Have fun. Pull out all the plugs and dive in. Focus. Meditate.
Writing is a form of meditation. Did you know that? Anything that calls for total focus, that clears the clutter in your brain.
I leave you now with the last verse of Pandemic, a poem by Lynn Ungar..
Promise this world your love-
for better or for worse
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
Thank you for reading my blog. Thank you for being a writer. What you write could make a difference one day. In your hands, and I mean literally, is the gift of both healing and of inspiration. The gift to touch people, to give people hope, to comfort people, and to affect change and, no less, to make them laugh.
Stay well. See you next time!