Perfectly Imperfect Podcast with John Strong

In a perfect world you work hard and you get rewarded for that work. The cream rises to the top. People want nothing more than to see you shine. The universe, GOD wants to grant the desires of your heart. In a perfect world...but this world ain’t perfect. Geniuses like the character Will sadly have a better chance of dying in a bar fight than being discovered by a professor at MIT. Good Will Hunting is as well scripted film I’ve ever viewed/read.

Yes, a teenaged John called bullshit on that one. As would be the case years later when The Blind Side swept through the country like a big old American ball of Christian feel good. I had noted a tried and true formula in Hollywood film at a young age. You take one part selfless white person, sprinkle in ignorant black folk and blend…you get box office gold. Or in Blind Side’s case…a gold statue.

I verbally outlined beats for the first act of a screenplay to my graduate class. My professor ingested this information; he mulled it over and responded with a nod, “Yeah, I can dig it.” He could dig it? He was picking up what I was laying down. Thank God I grew up in the ‘80s when times were a changing. And the images that I saw growing up on the big screen…actually looked like me. Images like those depicted in the (1986) film Soul Man.

Luke Jackson was exalted for his ability to endure, fight; persevere against all odds. He embodied what/who others aspired to be. But the moment he needed inspiration, the support of those who looked to him, they turned on him. I have known many a cheerleader in life willing to root from the sideline with no intent of ever contributing. Just along for the ride, watching the show. At the end of the day all you have is you. And sometimes nothing is a real cool hand.

The red pill in the film The Matrix represents the unknown, the uncertainty of not knowing ones future. In order to make this piece of pop culture relevant today let’s draw similarities to social media. People spend every quaking moment attached to their phones, tablets, and laptops. Thought, thinking is a thing of the past. All people have to do now is plug in and download their chosen reality. The Matrix.

Self-appointed fitness gurus; life coaches, philosophers are the new “public figures.” Masses flock aimlessly to the microwaved insta-lives they display online. The answers to all life’s woes are now accessible via an app. Happiness is no longer an idea but a tangible thing that can be manifested and displayed via a post. We are living in the age of lost and found. Losing yourself and finding yourself in someone else is commonplace.

“We don’t have everything but we got something. So no we’re not poor.” Perspective. She was around the age (13), around the age young Charlie was in the film Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. The difference between her perception and that of Charlie and I, we’d seen the glass ceiling. Some people accept this as their truth and they live in it. While others refuse to accept this, refute it, and set out to change their cards.

Life is loud. Life is so loud in fact that most people can’t handle silence. The silence of what is. Isolation has propelled many a great man/woman into their destiny. Conquering isolation “The Wilderness” defined Jesus, just as Andy Dufrain’s character in the Shawshank Redemption is defined by his ability to endure. We would all love to have a friend like Red to walk this road with, narrate our journey. And if you want to get there, you just may have to accept that you’ve got to walk alone.

Like The Count of Monte Cristo I had been the underdog, overlooked, taken advantage of most my life. But something shifted when I decided my best was good enough and carried myself accordingly -- other people followed suit and overnight I became a “somebody.” Envy, jealousy, and spite in some form or another infiltrated virtually ever relationship I had. I chose to use this negative energy to fill my sails, and propel me forward rather than weigh me down.

I was a child when I saw The Color Purple for the first time. I watched it until I knew the motivation behind the dialogue, and the subtle suggestions in things unsaid. The film The Color Purple examined dysfunction in rural South Georgia in the 1930’s and we had come so far as a people, that I grew up in the very same dysfunction in the 1980’s. My mother was Celie. My father Mister and the supporting cast coexisted in my papier-mâché world. My life was the color purple.