Saturday, March 26

We were awakened at 4 a.m. to a crashing thunderstorm with scary lightening that caused a brief power outage. A little while later, Mother tried to buzz us on the intercom to let us know there was a fire close to our house. But the intercom is downstairs, and we didn't hear it. So when I contacted her around 7:30, she said fire engines were gathered nearby.

I looked out a downstairs bedroom window and saw smoke billowing behind our immediate neighbor's house, so Hubbie went to inspect. A recently-built home next door to our neighbors had been gutted by fire and was still smoldering. The fire engines were gathered to keep the fire contained. We speculate that the home might have been struck by lightening this morning. Though the fire engines left before noon, the house continued to smolder and flame, eventually taking down the walls. As late as 10 p.m., when Hubbie and I passed it on our way home from a film festival screening, flames and smoke were still visible, though by that time the house was completely leveled.

After breakfast this morning, I did a treadmill session and weights exercises. Didn't do much else before lunch.

Shortly before noon, I went down to the college near our home to attend the day's film festival. I was determined this year to try to see every offering. No wonder my ticket is called a "red-eye pass," because after nine or so hours of watching films, I felt like my eyes might fall out.

The first set of films were ones created by filmmakers in our state. Among the films, was one (36 minutes long) about a homely woman in her 40's, who has a debilitating illness. She has a day job, but lives alone and is desperately lonely at night. Starved for male companionship, she becomes a telephone sex company worker. Before she'll talk to a customer, she insists they tell her they love her. One night she gets a call from a young preacher (she knows this guy, but doesn't recognize his voice). As commanded, he tells her he loves her. But at the end of the call, the preacher feels all guilty about calling and blames the lady for "making him sin." The next day he asks her out (not knowing she's the one he talked to the night before). At some point in their conversation, she makes a remark something like "okey-dokey honky-tonky" that he heard her make on the telephone the night before, and he suddenly realizes who she is. It turns him off, and he stands her up for their date. She goes home, and during her telephone sex work that night, she gets a call from a man who threatens her life, and decides to invite him to her house and let him kill her. "Tell me you love me," she says as he approaches her. This was based on a true story.

Another film (15 minutes) has two drifters traveling in the woods and along a railroad track. They come upon a dead body...another drifter...but ignore it and move on. They are met by another drifter, who shares his food with them, letting them know he stole it from a church. The three come to an encampment of homeless people who warn the two to move on. They do, but that night, the two drifters leave the sleeping third one and go back to the encampment and steal food. Homeless men from the encampment go in search of the thieves. The two hide and watch as the homeless men find the sleeping man and beat him to death. The two continue on their journey.

The second set of films was a documentary showcase about our state. Included here was one about Islam, which made many valid points, but did not sway me from my own beliefs, and one about a school (since closed because of budget constraints) that tells the story of a 20-year-old nonviolence program. In 2009, the school went 300 days without a fight. Officials from other schools have thought about modeling after that school, but eventually found the methods too time-consuming to bother attempting.

After these two sessions, I came home for supper, and then returned to the college for an international animation showcase. I wasn't sure what the filmmakers were driving at with some of the films, but a couple of them did stand out. One was about a man who is both on death row and Weight Watchers. He's talking to his lawyer, to whom he comments at the end of the film, "I don't mind dying, I just don't want to die fat." It was funny in a weird sort of way. Sort of pointed out how superficial we can be sometimes. To see this video, go to http://www.vodpod.com/ and search for "Death Row Diet."

But the one that touched me was about a 12-year-old with Asperger's Syndrome, who interviews his mother about their life together. Asperger's was described by someone as a person born without the ability to gain social skills. Therefore, people are not drawn to this boy as they are to his outgoing, friendly, cuddly baby sister. His mother explains how she loves him just the way his is, and how he has helped her grow as a person. To see this great animation, go to http://www.storycorp.org/ and search for "Q&A."

Following the animation showcase, I came home for a supper of veggie soup and bread spread with peanut butter. It was a quick supper, because I only had 30 minutes to eat and return to the college for a feature called, "God's Architects." This 82-minute feature centered on castle-builders in Tennessee and in our state, as well as other men building divinely-inspired monuments.. I have yet to see the castle in our state, but a friend of ours highly recommends that we visit it. One man is building a very colorful concrete mountain, with Biblical messages upon it, in the middle of the desert. He has been working on this, alone, for some 40 years. These men are building with neither funding nor blueprints from materials at hand. The man who is building in our state uses available rocks. The man in the desert mixes concrete from sand and straw. Others use metal, bricks, and wood. A 92-year-old African-American preacher fashioned a church from an abandoned bus. To see portions of these castles go to http://www.homeoffolkart.com/.

Later, Hubbie joined me for the 8:30 p.m. movie, "In/Significant Others," centered on a murder investigation. It revolves around an Iraq War veteran and his emotionally disturbed wife, the wife's female friend, with whom she's infatuated, and who turns out to be a drug dealer connected to the murdered man, a new father living in the shadow of his older brother, and a drug-addicted sister. It was about 10:30 before we got back home. Br-r-r, it was cold. It was cold in the auditorium, too, so I was ready for something warm to drink. Odd: even as it was 43 degrees here yesterday, it was 86 degrees in the south part of the state.