Happy eggs...

O.K, so the eggs didn't look quite that happy.

But close.

T'was breakfast as usual.  Coffee on the 'perk' ('on the bodum' didn't sound as good...) bagels toasting, kids trying to steal the fruit as we slice it.  Morning as usual at the Cantelon's.

I figured I'd make scrambled eggs.  I sometimes feel like my life is an endless sequence of trying to figure out new and creative ways to get a balanced breakfast into our systems each day.  Scrambled sounded good so I broke three eggs and dropped 'em in a bowl.  I was about to add the milk when I saw it.

Happy eggs.

Two of the yolks had stayed intact and one had broken.  The one that had broken was on the bottom and had curved slightly toward the two unbroken yolks above it (gravity, conservation of mass, etc...) on both sides forming a smiling mouth to sit beneath two happy yellow eyes.

If I had a digital camera (yeah, I'm still 'film'...Director, remember?)  I would've snapped a shot.  "Ah, just google 'smiley eggs'..." said Niki and I agreed, sure that I'd be able to find that the random happiness that had happened to me had happened to someone else with a digi-cam to hand.  

No such luck.

Sure I could dig a little, but who's got the time.  Instead I grabbed the image above and got on with it.

Random happiness.

Needed some.  In addition to the ongoing 'transitional stress' (which we hope comes to an end this weekend...) in our lives, we decided to watch 'Waitress' (Keri Russell) last night.  A bunch of people had recommended it, it's getting awards buzz, and the descriptor on the DVD box clinched it.  "Funny, heartwarming, lighthearted..." were some of the words used.

Lies.

Turns out 'Waitress' is a serious, dark comedy, masquerading as a romantic comedy.  I hate it when they do that.  I mean, I 'get' why they do it.  Who really wants to be sad for an hour and forty-five minutes then get five minutes of half-hearted happiness tacked on at the end?  I remember when "Message in a Bottle" (Kevin Costner) did it to us; pretended it was a lovey-dovey valentines flick then went and offed-him.  Niki and I had actually gone to see it as part of a valentines date and, man, did we feel ripped off.

The marketing guys aren't stupid you know.

If they actually told you what "Waitress" was about, you most likely take a 'pass' on it 'cause, if you're like us, there's probably already enough pain in your life without adding any gratuitous 'Hollywood-art pain' to it.  

Right?

Don't get me wrong, "Waitress" was really nicely done.  Well written, acted, and directed.  A strong picture worthy of the buzz it's getting, just not a 'happy' way to spend a night with your wife.

I keep realizing I'm not the kind of storyteller (for the screen or from the pulpit) who wants to take life that seriously.  I don't get 'jazzed' by the thought of training the camera on a story of pain for two hours.  I don't come to a text looking to find anything but the best, most inspiring, encouraging way to tell the truth of it to my audience.  

There's just too much pain in the world.

Did you know that the Writer/Director of "Waitress" was murdered before the picture released?  Did you know she had a baby girl (for whom the movie was a 'love letter') and a loving husband?  How 'bout the fact that the 19 year-old who killed her just lost his temper and punched her while the two of them were arguing over the noise he was making while renovating a loft beneath hers in Greenwich Village in NYC?  If you add the fact that he then strung her up with a sheet from her shower rod to make it look like she killed herself and that that's how her husband found her the next morning, it'd be enough to make you sick with sorrow.

Welcome to my last night.

'Geez.

So I figure 'happy eggs' are about what we needed today.

When you're lucky enough to take the pulpit and a hundred or more people show up, spending those moments of their life hoping that you'll enrich theirs, you need to frickin' remember that they're likely sad and needing encouragement.  

When you decide what story you're going to spend two years of your life bringing to life for the screen, you better make damn sure it's worth your audience's time and investment.

'Course some of you are thinking I'm advocating an exclusively 'Osteen-ish' approach in the pulpit and a Disney-fied take on all filmmaking.

(I'm telling you, "Enchanged" made me cry like a baby and not 'cause it was sad but 'cause it was beautifully redemptive, in a simple way.)

The older I get the more like a kid I feel.

I don't want 'sophisticated' and 'erudite'.  I don't want 'lofty' or 'arty'. I want someone to tell me that it's going to be o.k.

"But it's not going to be o.k, Todd.  That's the point."

No it's not.

The point of the redemptive story or urge is that it IS going to be o.k.  We're not o.k, I get that.  We need to become o.k, I believe it.  But the central, core message of the redemptive story is that it's been made right.  Life has.  

It's gonna' be o.k.  

And yes, tell me the whole story of creation, fall, incarnation, death, resurrection, redemption from the pulpit.  Yes, take me from 'normal' to 'abnormal' to near disastrous to alright when you make a movie.  But please tell me the whole story. 

Because not all of life is loss and not all men are beasts and not all women whores. Not all kids nightmares.  Not all jobs 'dead end'.

There is light at the end of the tunnel and our films and our preaching need to reflect it because it's Christmas and...

Even the eggs cry out.

T