A IS FOR ARCADIA

In this case, Arcadia is about the short-lived, but amazing, TV show Joan of Arcadia. For regular readers of this blog, you see clips of this show frequently on my HERE'S TO YOU dedications on Thursday. I think there is actually a lot of crossover between it being a Passion of mine and a place where I have learned many Life Lessons.

If you missed out on this incredible show, and have no idea even of the premise, Joan is a teenager girl that God chooses for "missions," if you will. As you can imagine, that first conversation didn't go over particularly well or easily. And God is pretty much exactly how you would expect: God is a lot more tell and a lot less explain. LOL. Notice how God didn't do a lot of explaining in The Bible, either. It was a lot of "do as I ask." Eventually Joan came to see how there was a Greater Plan in play when she simply did as God asked, but she never had an easy time of it.

One of the things I really liked about this show is that I always liked to imagine how much easier MY LIFE would be if I could actually talk to God and all things would be revealed. That show was an excellent reminder that God simply doesn't work that way. If God did work that way, we would all have direct phone lines straight to the Creator. Those phone lines don't exist NOT because God isn't CAPABLE of making them; instead they don't exist because we are meant to muddle our way through. It is the *point.*

This is one of my favorite clips from the entire series. God takes on many "forms" when he/she appears to Joan, so you never know precisely what God will look like. The assignment at the beginning of this episode (for Joan) was to convince her friend Adam not to put his art in the school Art Show. She failed at the task and he won first place. The clip begins with Joan and God. Joan is headed to school. It is the day after the Art Show. I love the part in the clip where God points out that it isn't faith if everything is explained. And pretty much everyone who has faith ~ at some point ~ also experiences a crisis of faith. In this blog, I have referred to my own crisis of faith as a meltdown and a literal shout-down match at God on several occasions. It kinda sorta looks ridiculous when you are all by yourself having this break. But, if you have ever been there and done that, I know you know what I mean! Incredible scene...

That clip always makes me cry. Actually that episode always makes me cry. I love the phrase that God uses: a failure of imagination. Isn't it horrible with irony that God warns Joan about having a failure of imagination, and then she goes and does it AGAIN? She already had done it once, and God called it what it was. And then she turned around and did it again, just far more epically and terribly. The ripples of that failure are felt for a long time. It takes a long time to heal the damage it does to her friendship with Adam. Even things done out of love can be so very hurtful. Of course, because the hurt was so deep the episode on Forgiveness that comes later in the season is also Epic, and will make you weep until you hurt. These two things walk hand in glove.

Joan of Arcadia:  A Passion.  And chuck full of Life Lessons. Like so many things, you came to an end way before your time.


image found in photobucket.com


What did you think of the clip?  Did it make you cry?  When you make lousy decisions in the future will you now think of them as a failure of imagination?  Have you ever had a crisis of faith?

Movie Quote Wednesday

I wasn't paying attention last week and completely missed it.  What did I miss?

Movie Quote Wednesday.  Alex J. Cavanaugh posts the theme each week, so you have a whole week to decide on a quote.  Two weeks ago, I totally bailed on the theme and just did my own thing.  Yeah, I know... it was a totally "Me" thing to do.  Additionally, I planted it in front of another post.  I had a LOT to say that day.  Moving on...

The following Wednesday, I totally forgot it was Wednesday.  Missed the entire Event.  This is my life.

So, this week the theme is Crime Thriller.  Next week it is Romantic Comedy.  I do keep up... contrary to popular opinion.

If you are wondering why the name sounds familiar, Alex J. Cavanaugh is the same fellow hosting the 10 Top Movie Blogfest in March.  And he is also a person helping out with the A to Z Challenge.  He also runs the Insecure Writers Support Group.  That happened today for all of those people throwing out their work.  That isn't me.  Do I need to work on my novel?  Yes.  Have I worked on it at all?  Not even remotely for over a year.  It is like the inspiration juice drained out of me.  I find even thinking about it annoying.  Reading what I write on this blog annoys me.  When I can put words together in such a fashion that they sound like music, even if it sometimes sounds off-key, then there will be something worth reading.  Until then, not so much.  However, I love the things that Alex does on his blog.  If you are a writer, it is an excellent place to go.

For the record, I did sign up for the A to Z Challenge.  Please note the badge in my sidebar.  I will talk about this more in a later blog.  I also signed up for the Top 10 Movie Challenge.  I committed.  My list of movies just gets longer and longer.  I am beginning to think that maybe a decade is the way to go here.  80s maybe?  I don't know yet.  I have yet to figure out how I am going to pull out 10 of Anything out of this list.  However, here is one of my Favorites for Movie Quote Wednesday.  It could still end up on my Top 10 Movie List, depending on how they get weeded out.

"You went down thirty years ago, pal, you just don't know it yet."   ~Frequency



image found at www.weheartit.com

Challenged.

Are any of you planning to participate in the upcoming A to Z challenge?

 I have been dragging my heels about adding my name to the list.  I have been following the updates to the main page like a zealot.  And still... I have chosen my theme, have an ongoing list mapped out A-Z and am vigorously trying to fill in a subject for each letter.  It is something that is getting ongoing mental pushes on a daily basis.  I am down to the letters O and X.  They stare at me like two redheaded stepsisters that remain dateless for the Big Dance.  I glare back. "I have NOTHING for you," my brain screams.  And until I do I can't commit to The List.  Gah.  She bangs her head into the wall behind her desk.  Check that.  She only thinks about it.  The migraine already hurts enough.

If this is the first you have heard of the A to Z Challenge, it is a daily writing challenge for the month of April.  The sign up is now so that you have plenty of time to prepare.  The idea is that you write on a Themed Subject so that your readers get used to your topic.  (You don't have to write on a theme if you don't want... you can write on anything and everything if you so choose.)   It is every day but Sunday.  You can prepare all of your writing before April so that your time is spent reading and commenting, so that it isn't overwhelming in April.  The intent of the challenge is for you to meet new bloggers who are writing about things that you are interested in reading, and vice versa. 

So, let's flip to another page in the notebook.  Alex Cavanaugh is going to host a challenge on his blog in March, in the guise of Blog Hop, to list your Top Ten Movies of All-Time.

Are you freaking kidding me????  Can't we pick a genre, a decade, something?  Ergo, I have a running list that gets longer by the day.  Each movie that I think to add to the list triggers another movie.

Does anyone remember THE PLASTIC JOY AWARDS????

If you are scratching your head over that shout of frustration... that was an award intended to be fun (and OMG it was... so so fun) regarding fictional crushes.  However, I have this love of YouTube that is unmatched.  I maintain that they have laced it with visual crack cocaine.  Don't know how, but it's there.  And this award got slightly out of control.  I think you were supposed to choose five fictional crushes.  I think I chose 30.  Whatevs.  And it went for 3 days.  Again, it is the JOY of the award.  And no one says you HAVE to do it a certain way.  I mean the rules aren't set in STONE.  No one flogs you or anything if you go outside the boundaries.  A little.  Or a lot.  Moving on...

I think my quandary lies in the fact that I am not really known for following rules very well.  I am already looking for work-arounds with the Top 10 list.  Seriously... if there is a movie series... you should be able to count the entire series as ONE movie, right????  If not, I am thinking of panning them all.  I can't choose one movie out of a series and skip the rest.  Do you feel me?

So, what do YOU think?

So, am I the only person who would have trouble picking 10 All-Time Favorite Movies?  Does this Blog Hop sound like fun to You?  What about the A to Z Challenge... are you participating?  Does it sound like something you want to investigate further?   Do you prefer the idea of writing within the context of a theme or would you rather just fly by the seat of your pants?  Do you feel like you need to have all of your letters covered BEFORE you enter or are you ready to enter NOW?