Thursday, August 02, 2007

Thoughts

I was originally going to blog about theatre ettiquette, and how even if it's summer stock and free and outdoors (like, say, you go sit in the back rows at The Muny or you go to the Shakespeare in the Park festival here in the StL), you should still behave as though it were real professional theatre because-guess what?-it IS real professional theatre. So don't get up and leave right as Joseph is reunited with his father and brothers, because there's a whole other song or two afterwards and even though you may think that they can't see you leaving, the actors certainly can see you leaving, and they can also hear you leaving. And those of us who are good patrons have trouble seeing around you as you stumble down the row in front of us.

As you can see, I still got the rant in, albeit the abridged version. No, I have decided to scrap the lengthy tirade in order to share some thoughts.

To my friends, family and readers in Minnesota: I am glad to have already heard from so many of you, and I hope to hear from the rest of you soon. Let me know you're okay. For the rest of you, I want you to know that I do have ties in the Twin Cities area, and I've heard from the majority of them, and as they're all either related to each other or very close friends, I am not too worried about those I have not heard from yet.

Think of how many bridges you drive over a day. I myself have driven over the 1-35W bridge many times. I have friends whom I am sure drive over it at least once a week if not every day.

This is the kind of thing that could scare some people away from bridges. Like 9/11 scared people from flying or going into tall buildings. But that kind of fear could paralyze you...especially because sometimes the only way to get where you need to go is to cross a bridge.

Life is full of risks, and there are some that we just can't avoid. The idea is to minimize the risks while maximizing their benefits; taking the I-35W bridge over the river is a lot quicker than heading north of the river's source and coming down the other side.

My thoughts are with everybody affected by this tragedy. In perspective, it could have been much much worse I am sure, but then so could a lot of things have been that shouldn't have been as bad as they were. And this is one of them, but there's nothing can be done about it now except to find out what went wrong so it can be prevented from happening to somebody else, somewhere else. Because we have to remember that to somebody else somwhere else, you and I are somebody else.

It seems trite to ask for suggestions for my Free Write Friday in light of this tragedy, but we must forage on. So, look back to last week's Free Write Friday and then I pose you this question as your jumping off point for your suggestions for starting point for this week's Free Write Friday. Let me read that last sentence to make sure it makes sense. No, it doesn't good. Okay, here's the question:

What happens to Sam to keep him from showing up to his meeting on time?

And GO!

6 comments:

Molly said...

Sam was already running a little late, and then McArthur Park began playing on the radio... the long version... and he just couldn't tear himself away. (Or choose any other piece of music)

Anonymous said...

Please pray for Lindsay everyone- she was on the bridge. I have heard no details except that she needs prayers.

Elliot said...

Okay then, people. One suggestion. I can't run on one suggestion alone. Looks like my Free Write Friday is postponed until I get some more suggestions.

I need choices, people!

Rebecca said...

Sorry Elliot. I fell off the blogniverse again. Life gets in the way of the internet sometimes. I guess that is probably a good thing.

Maybe Sam was late because he was driving over the I-35W bridge? Ok, bad suggestion. That's sort of all I can think of these days. Sorry.

Sam was late because... He ran into his ex-girlfriend of many years ago (who he hadn't seen for a couple of those years) - and damn, she looked fiiiine. Ok. That's all I've got.

OH, I'm hogging the blog comments again. Sorry. I have a question too - WHEN AM I GETTING MY COPY OF YOUR PUBLISHED WORK IN THE MAIL??!!

hehe. : )

mGk said...

Sam stops for coffee at the local Javabucks and once inside he finds out it is much like the Hotel California...(you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.)

John said...

The getting up before the show is done to get out of the theatre before everyone is distinctly the Lou. Having worked on national tours in the past, the casts would dread playing the Fox because people were so rude. It must be that everyone left the iron on or something. Just sit and enjoy the WHOLE production and then discuss it on the way to the car or in the car while you drive home. A few extra minutes waiting is not the worst thing in the world.