Happy birthday, Mom.
Mom. So proud you are yourself, and how you have helped so many others become comfortable and confident being themselves. You are a bridge-builder, a lightning strike, a shelter in the storms; a furious mixture of raw strength and true humility bound with love for others and a willingness to stand up for all who need standing up for. A model.
So proud you are Mom to me and six, and friend to so many others you have invited into (y)our world. I hate it when people call you a saint. Saints are dead. And they're on pedestals. You are human, very much alive, and and humble enough to own up to your mistakes and let those fuel your empathy for connecting with countless others as we stumble and bumble through life. Your modeling of inclusive Christianity; open door, bringing people LITERALLY many times off the streets into your home, is the example I want to try and follow. A welcoming and kind refuge. Thanks for that.
Tell your husband hi. He's a decent chap too.
Sincerely,
Joseph Long
(one of your sons - the one married to Becca)
Oh yeah, happy birthday, by the way.
Altman played with overlapping dialogue and long handheld shots that kept the focus on people talking and interacting over each other. Rather than the rat-a-tat-tat of one person talking, then another, there were people constantly moving and talking over and around one another in many of his films - and sometimes off-camera - in fact, sometimes the dialogue happening off-camera is more important to moving the story along than what we’re actually seeing.
Malick has crafted many beautiful, provoking, poetic films that also focus on capturing the feeling, the presence, the happening of a moment in earth’s existence, rather than blazing along with the camera directly focusing on the action. There’s an ephemeral presence in his stories that are both contemplative and action; the action of life happening in our peripheral vision, and how that often is the driving force, rather the apparent happening in front of us.
My mom would come out in the front yard and video. A child would fall, and she would keep videoing. Children would argue, and she would keep videoing. Something would happen away from camera, and she would keep videoing - and narrate what was happening.
