Written and illustrated by Joe Chiappetta, 2010 on an HP laptop running Microsoft Windows XP. Drawing created in Google Docs Drawing Program, edited in Microsoft Paint.
I Walk These Streets As If I Were In A Movie
It's a usual route to my ultra high rise office, but the experience today becomes quite unusual--even transformational in its own way. On my walk in from the train, I am surprised to see strange and over-sized power cords winding all throughout a two block radius of the downtown area. The cords are everywhere, running along the curbs and the ancient elevated train girders.
Normally in this area, vehicles wouldn't dare to park at all on these precious streets without suffering the wrath of countless and expensive city fines. Therefore, I can only conclude that some city officials and police officers must have been well paid off. Payoffs or not, the streets are jammed will all sorts of movie producing vehicles. Camera trucks, prop trucks, lighting cranes, food service trucks, special effects vehicles--they are all lined up as a deployed army of entertainment producing masters.
Fake slabs of torn up concrete pepper the cityscape in random looking piles that were most certainly meticulously placed. It's amazing how much attention to detail has been put into piles of fake rubble! A phony burnt and smashed metro bus slumps along the side of the road. Up close, I notice that the burn marks are actually just spray paint, but the impact of pretend wreckage is soul-stirring, nonetheless. It's not even real, yet I'm momentarily hooked into the drama of it all.
Who is the mad genius behind this wild urban mutation? What in the universe has become of my city? I notice the image of a small cat-like robot face stamped on all the production vehicles. This universally recognizable logo explains it all; they're making another Transformers movie!
Internally, I have a dilemma--should I stay or should I go? I’m conflicted. Part of me wants to drop everything and kick into geek artist mode: drawing sketches of everything I see. Yet another part of me is compelled to walk on by and say, "Aw, so what. A rich, ambitious, and well organized production company has taken over a few blocks of the city--big deal. They’ll be gone in a few weeks, with no real allegiance to this town, this people, or this planet."
The temporary signs and portable barricades posted along the borders of the filming area also send a somewhat conflicted message. One sign blocking the sidewalk says, "No loitering." Yet just next to it, another sign reads, "Stores are still open for business during production." That's messy communication in my book.
On my way to work, just prior to coming upon this scene, the communication is quite clearer. I pray with two dear friends in the early morning--first Bob, and then Nick. The way the timing of my commute goes, I finish praying with Nick just before coming to the point in the city where movie production is going on. Both friends are the salt of the earth, and I am a better man for knowing them. They're both family men, with one being ten years older than me, and the other being ten years younger than me. With me in the middle, it makes for a well-rounded circle of positive influence.
Not only does having these prayer partners make the commute productive, but most importantly, it connects us with a real master of production: the maker of the universe. Moreover, praying transforms me and the friends I pray with. While no one will likely be making a blockbuster movie about us, through prayer we become the men we want to be, rather than merely men that stumble along the excitable emptiness of life. Being bonded with God and each other as brothers, prayer partners are not tossed this way and that, like unsecured cargo, or like meaningless movie props--here today, gone tomorrow.
Nevertheless, I do tell my prayer partners about the amazing changes that the movie makers have made to the city, and it certainly gets a "Wow, that's so cool!" statement. Yet that's pretty much the extent of the interest level. After a few more follow up questions, like, "Did you see anyone famous?" life goes on. Then our conversations advance to what is truly transformational: praying.
As I consider the spectacle that radiates from this movie set, I can't help but wonder what all those business owners think of this disruption of access to their places of business. Do they not care because they are getting paid off too? Or are they cursing the day when someone thought that movies about cars who turn into robots was a money-making idea?
I also wonder what God thinks about all this attention, time, and money being focused on flashy fantasies that can excite the masses (self included), but won't save anyone in the end. At some point, I imagine that I will watch this Transformers movie, and probably even love it. Yet more importantly, if I don't recommit daily in prayer to leading a transformed life, walking in the light of God, then I'm about as useful as those piles of rubble--fake rubble.
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