Update Essay: Some Traveling Thoughts
Dear Friends,
Here are some brief and rather quick (penned this morning!) “traveling thoughts” while on the road this past week with my wife, Debby.
Often, you are in those thoughts and my deepest prayers.
And a special Rosh Hashanah today to all of our Jewish subscribers. May peace prevail in your hearts and in Israel.
Pressing On!
D. Paul
TRAVELING THOUGHTS
On The Road Again: While Willie Nelson may have sent us merrily on our way, his personalized bus (sans the marijuana!) would have been a better mode of transportation. I had not travelled by air in a year, friends, and it’s crazy out there. Every plane was “packed to the gills,” everyone seemingly going somewhere. When I flew by myself in 1957 on a DC-3 flight from Cincinnati to Detroit, my mother dressed me in a natty, tweed sport coat, a checkered bow tie, and spotless white bucks. I thought all the stewardesses were beauty queens, serving me an iced RC Cola and placing a fresh linen napkin on my lap. Of course, when I was twelve, there were less than 3 billion people compared to the 8 billion people today running to and fro all over the globe. It’s good to know that “…the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth” also, “to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (II Chronicles 16:9, NKJV).
On Courtesy: Simply put, it seems to be lacking—everywhere. There is a spirit of discontent, anxiety, and unhappiness in the air. Faces are drawn, world-weary, with more frowns than smiles. Everyone is “wired” to their smart phones, living in their individuated bubble of sights and sounds, keeping human interaction and the “press of the flesh” to a minimum. Covid exacerbated our isolation; technology, with its depersonalized, AI functions, may well seal it. Good to know that as brothers and sisters in Christ we can still “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (II Corinthians 13:12, NIV) and provide one another with the “right hand of fellowship.” What a treasure is ours in Christ, and how refreshing it was on the plane when a young man, seeing that I was with a cane (I’d just finished a procedure on my bum knee) offered me his hand, helping me into the aisle. How touching a courteous, gracious gesture can be. Lord, help me to be that encouraging hand to others. Amen
On Mr. Unknown: On Friday, September 27, we were driven* to Santee, CA. What good can come out of Santee, you say? For starters, Amanuel Zarzowski, a wonderful composer who scored our film, Of Things Past, and is currently working on the orchestration for Mr. Unknown, the movie we’ve been working on for the past five years with Executive Producer, Dr. Sam Mayhugh, who wrote the book, “Harold’s Story,” which the film is based upon.
From left to right: Executive Producer, Dr. Sam Mayhugh; Composer, Amanuel “Zarzosa”; Dramatist, D. Paul Thomas, at Amanuel’s “sanctum sanctorum,” his recording studio in Santee, CA, which includes, among others, an exquisite 1895 Chickering, just like Glenn Gould’s, and a Steinway Model B in mint condition made in 1925, officially cataloged as an Antique built in Steinway’s Golden Earthen Studio. You gotta love it! To know more about our next film, Mr. Unknown, go to https://tgaproductions.org/mr-unknown/ And please, keep us in your prayers. We need them, as we will be filming a little preview of the movie in six weeks!
On The Theatre: Saturday night, we had the privilege of seeing our granddaughter, Olivia Mitchell, perform in the final show of “Mean Girls” (the High School version, though you could fool ol’ fuddy-duddy me!), presented by the wonderful San Diego School of Creative & Performing Arts, where she is a senior. It was directed by the extremely gifted Roxane Carrasco, a Broadway alumnus. Olivia played the role of Regina (part of a talented ensemble of three girls—“The Plastics”), and it was this dramatist’s joy to see Olivia’s talents on full display, which mostly came from her mother’s and grandmother’s extraordinary musical genes, dating back to Charles Wesley. If you doubt this grandpa’s pride, I’ll let you know when she opens on Broadway! We’re rejoicing over her talents, for how good it is to know that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights….” (I James 1:17, NIV).
On Family: Leo Tolstoy starts his novel, “Anna Karenina,” with that familiar opening line, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This “Anna Karenina principle,” as it has been dubbed—“Happy families share a common set of attributes which lead to happiness, while any of a variety of attributes can cause an unhappy family”—can be further reduced to, “it’s hard to get things right but it’s pretty easy to mess up.” And so it is with our families. But despite all of our “mishegoss,” family is family—“flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone”—remaining the grand, inexorable pull of the human heart. Most great plays, from Shakespeare to Eugene O’Neill, can be summarized in four words: “It’s about a family.” And what a joy to spend a few days with mine, our youngest daughter, Shelley, flying in from New York to join us in San Diego, and Danelle, our “special” girl, returning with us to Indy for three months. And a special “thanks” to a local friend who helped facilitate this entire process.
Will you pause with me, dear friends, as I take a moment to pray: Dear Lord, forgive us for wherever we may have failed you and our families. Help us—may our families reflect your great love for us. Give us more understanding, more patience, a greater spirit of forgiveness, and grant us your profound peace in our homes. Despite political, religious, aesthetic, or temperamental differences, may we love one another unconditionally, even as you have loved us. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
On Friends: As I travelled around this past week, so many of you came to mind: an old friend on the Isle of Man—stay strong; an Anglican priest serving in England—strength for your duties; a Christian filmmaker ministering in Saudi Arabia—keep filming; a new subscriber in Hong Kong—God richly bless you, whoever you are; a gifted writer in Altadena—keep writing; a leader in the Global Methodist Church—keep preaching the full Gospel; a professor at PLU—keep the faith as given to you and the saints; a lawyer friend, recently married—blessing upon blessing to you and your husband; a screenwriter friend in LA—peace & healing; a relative in New York—stay safe!; a servant to the homeless in LA—keep serving; an emissary of God’s peace in Israel—the full armor of God be upon you and your ministry; old friends in Glendora—God’s sweet comfort as you comfort one another. So many others come to mind. You are in our heart.
My closing thought/prayer for all of us, dear reader, is this: “…[that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself] (Ephesians 3:19, Amplified Bible).
Amen.