parallax view

Eating an artichoke takes a lot of effort.

I spent many childhood dinners confronted with that peculiar green thing lying dormant at the edge of my plate. One at a time each leaf is removed. The soft end of each is dipped in warm, melted butter. The sample size edible vegetable that makes up the tip is nibbled off then the process repeats. Eventually the molested leaves have become a pile of refuse in a bowl at the center of the table. You're left with the prize, the core, the heart.


Life is full of artichokes.

We've passed the third week of October. The weather has taken a plunge by a very few degrees, but I sit here with the window open and my office curtains blowing in rhythm with the wind. Most of the year, I hate everything about living in Florida. A few times per year when the climate starts to shift it begins to feel like it was worth all of the toiling through the baking temperatures, dry mouth, and sweat.

The script for the new project has finally gotten under my skin, and I continue to have misgivings about it. Unfortunately the closer I look and the more I peel back the layers, the less I start to see. Based on my conversation with the producer he seems proud of the project and what it can mean for his company's future. He told me he was interested in hearing my opinion, but I don't know what to do because I doubt he expects the assessment I presently have. God, I'm tired of working on projects that seem like replications of below average fair targeted at an audience that must have amnesia to enjoy such tripe.

I have a friend who I met many years ago in a writer group, which he joined soon after being bitten by the writing bug. He went into screenwriting with minimal knowledge of the craft and had only seen a handful of movies. Very little about his early efforts indicated that he chose the right pursuit, but I still took him seriously and gave him the suggestions that I deemed appropriate. Since then life has gone back to normal for him. He's still got his wife, a couple of kids, a few scripts under his belt. In a way he's gotten the urge to pursue screenwriting out of his system.

There is something to be said for seeing things yourself, and gaining your own clarity. Being supportive is complicated, because it means standing side-by-side someone even if you predict failure and then again when they hit that wall you saw coming. The sun is rising on my sister-in-law and she is seeing things with a clearer vision after taking several nose dives into the unknown which I had seen as fitting of her impulsive nature.

I've often wondered at what cost experiences are worth the failure. There's a quote on my bulletin board that reads, "Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm" (Winston Churchill). Five long years have passed since the last time I metaphorically broke my neck from leaning over the edge too far. Experience and knowledge become power after a while, but sometimes a bad experience can make you walk around everywhere on your tip toes.