Have You Seen the Film, October Baby?

Just saw it . . . what an unexpectedly moving movie experience! I didn't know it was a faith-based film, but 10 or 20 minutes in I realized the story on screen was unashamed about promoting basic Christian values. An adopted 19-year-old, sheltered because of medical problems, raised in a Christian home, decides to experience some of what life has to offer and takes off with a group of college friends primarily to find her birth mother. Their first stop in a motel, they don't share rooms--girls with girls, boys with boys. Later, Hannah takes off on her own, but her good friend, going all the way back to childhood, Jason, finds her and they continue Hannah's quest together.



In another motel room scene, Hannah explains to Jason that she's a virgin and hasn't had much dating experience. She's in the bed, Jason's on the floor and there's no implied sex or even kissing. Later in the film, Hannah's father asks her to come home with him, and asks Jason to stay away. Displaying the Christian value to Honor Thy Mother and Thy Father, they both comply. The soul of the film, however, uses the plot to inspire the viewer to avoid abortion at all costs.

Although I was moved to shed a few tears at several points in the film, along the way I couldn't help feel the film wasn't representing the cold reality of the problems and issues people face during life. The film also implied that if your faith was strong enough, you just might get through life without doing anything bad or having anything bad happen to you. Of course, we all know that isn't how things are, but all in all I applaud the Erwin Brothers who wrote, directed, and produced the film for their well-crafted, well-acted, inspirational movie, a refreshing change from the relatively mindless CGI drivel that seems to dominate the big secular screen these days!

Hunger Games . . . Katness or Bella

Being a writer, I can't help but ask people I see reading about the book they've chosen and why they were drawn to it. Hunger Games, the most recent teen-reading phenomenon seems to have attracted a completely different audience than Twilight. I didn't have to ask too many questions to find out the Hunger Games fans much preferred Katniss Everdeen's strong, self-reliant character to the more passive, submissive Bella Swan from Twilight. 




Besides writing, I'm also a computer science teacher. I showed the trailer to Hunger Games to my students to segway into the lesson by telling them that the actual Hunger Games competition to the death was a metaphor for needing to be prepared to face the much more serious version of life as an adult as opposed to a relatively sheltered teen. It worked!

When building my Fallon Ford character in Maitreya I was initially inspired by the Twilight characters, Bella and Edward. My Holden Harwell followed Edward to the down side of becoming immortal while Fallon, early on, began to think for herself and ultimately resisted and turned away from the path Holden was on.

As readers of Maitreya I hope, like Hunger Games, you find my Katniss, Fallon Ford, to be a strong character you can relate to and use as a role model.

A Global Uprising Against Injustice . . .

At the time of the posting of this blog entry over 70 million people have not only watched the "Invisible Children" YouTube video about Ugandan Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army atrocities against children as well as other human rights violations. He has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, but to date has not been apprehended or brought to justice. These criminal abuses have been going on for years, but what is happening to bring global awareness to the issue is unprecedented!

In my book, Jesus returns to Earth after 2,000 years and going by the name, Maitreya, challenges his followers to finally realize the global implications of Love Thy Neighbor by applying the principles of Justice and Sharing to end poverty and crimes against humanity.

Given the global reaction to the Joseph Kony YouTube video, perhaps humanity is now spiritually ready to take that next step in their evolution toward Enlightenment--which is the principal reason why Jesus will be returning soon.

This isn't just about 70 million people viewing the video, all over the world demonstrations to finally take action are being planned and all springing up at the level of passionate people, not governments.

These are extraordinary times to be alive!