The month of January gets its name from the Roman god Janus
who was the god of beginnings, gates and transitions and obviously apropos for
the 1st month of the year.[i] Often Janus is depicted as having two faces
with one looking forward and another looking backwards.
There are plenty of forward and backward moments in January that
might please the god Janus if the god Janus existed. We look forward to receiving our W-2’s from
our jobs that reveal how much we made in the previous year that we have to
report to the IRS by April 15th. By the
time January rolls around most Hollywood pundits are pondering which
actors/writers/directors/sound mixers will be nominated and perhaps win that
coveted Oscar (ceremony to be held on March 24, 2024) for their performances in
2023. We realize we eventually have to take
down all of the Christmas decorations we put up in 2023 which if you recall was
my 1st blogpost published January 9th, 2023. (to sum up you have anytime between December
26th and the descent of Christ at his 2nd coming) and
maybe look forward to when we can put them up again in 2024.
However, the need to look backward as well as forward I
would say primarily takes place during the eight days between Christmas and New
Year’s. News organizations like Time
magazine often sum up the year in review in addition to their naming of the
Person of the Year[ii]. For 2023 it was Taylor Swift probably because
she was that ubiquitous during 2023 and yet, somehow, we weren’t complaining
about her ubiquity. Plenty of YouTubers
also have their best/worst lists of the year out as well.
But most importantly
for me it has now been a year since I’ve started this blog so I thought I’d
might reread several of them to realize what I have learned about my “Random
Thought” in 2023.
And this is what I have learned.
.1. I have to work on getting my blogposts out in a timelier manner.
I published four blogposts between August 26th
and September 5th going on about how I was OK with the end of the
Hollywood world as we know it and why I felt fine. In hindsight I realize the paragraphs upon
paragraphs I published could be summed up in the following single paragraph
statement-
Hollywood movie studios need to pay their writers and
actors more because the general TV viewing and movie-going public is no longer
going to spend their hard-earned time and harder to come by money on mindless
drecky entertainment. Ironically this
may mean that fewer movies and TV shows will be made because society at large
isn’t giving the Hollywood movie moguls the money they want/need like in the
past. However, with over 100+ years of
movies to explore and over 70+ years of television shows to watch Hollywood
could cease to exist and we will still find plenty of stuff to entertain us on
the various streaming platforms that are out there that ironically probably
helped to kill the Hollywood entertainment model to begin with. Besides, I’m more likely to stream something
on YouTube for free from an amateur to semi-professional content creator than
stream something from a streaming service owned by the movie studios or a
dot.com movie company.
I’m also worried my verbosity may have hindered rather than helped Dallas Jenkins get his $160 million to continue his work on “The Chosen” series. Maybe me going on and on why Jenkins’ crowdfunding may be drying up and why he still needs lots of money wasn’t the way to go. Maybe I should have gone on and on about how there a plenty of wonderful jokey moments that are in good taste like in season one episode two when Jesus is sitting down with Mary Magdalene and her friends at Shabbat dinner when Mary Magdalene's friend Barnaby remarks something (or really someone) good can come from a po-dunk town like Nazareth was back in biblical times. Jesus smiled at Barnaby in agreement instead of scowling at him all wrath-of-God-y. Maybe talking about 14-minute single take shot of an extremely long line of sick people waiting for Jesus to heal them while the camera followed various apostles dealing with this situation from episode three season two was not the way to go. The general viewing public probably doesn’t understand how technically hard that shot was and how multiple things needed to go right to be perfect. Maybe I should have gone on and on about the wonderful performances Shahar Isaac and Lara Silva gave as Simon Peter and Simon Peter’s wife Eden especially during the season three story arc where Eden miscarries their child while Simon Peter is away preaching the Gospel (And Eden doesn’t tell Simon Peter about it at first) creating tension between the two of them and eventually between Simon Peter and Jesus. The whole show makes a point that all of the apostles Jesus surrounded himself while He was here on earth were flawed and fully actualized human beings instead of some lofty marble statues Catholics allegedly worship. So yes, that show is wonderful with plenty of great dramatic moments. And that is the point I should have made so the money can come Dallas Jenkins’ way.
By the way it's not too late to donate to Come and See foundation if you want a tax write off for 2023. (Or maybe you actually have watched the show and want to make sure Dallas Jenkins gets the $160 million needed for the rest of the show's run).
3. 3. I am wondering if I should even be a blogger.
I began the blog because I wanted to get back to
writing. I always wanted to be a writer,
and this was my way of getting back to that dream. I want to take a moment to publicly thank my husband
for all of his ongoing support like giving me a how-to blogpost tip book this
past Christmas and for giving me time and space to work on this on my own.
However, just because I want to be a writer and have been
writing this blogpost for over a year now doesn’t mean that I should be a
writer.
I personally think my blogpost on everyone having
Thanksgiving off is the best one I’ve published to date. However, just because I think it’s great
doesn’t mean that it is actually great.
I don’t want to be like a 2000’s "American Idol" contestant going before the
judges believing they’re the next Kelly Clarkson only to have Simon Cowell emphatically
state a garbage disposal griding metal nuts and bolts to smithereens is more
melodious than that tone deaf caterwauling Idol contestant. I want to know if I am actually good at
writing these blogposts.
I haven’t received much in the way of feedback as to whether
or not what I'd written was good. I haven’t
also received feedback that what I'd written was awful either. I often wonder if
anyone is taking the time to read my blogposts and if not why not? Am I that boring? Is my writing style still stuck in the
arrested development age of my 13-year-old moody snarky self who began to
write? Is my grammar and borderline run on sentences
too much of a turn off in the age of Tik Tok and pithy Facebook memes? My
writing can be very cathartic for me as I try and focus on something other than
that customer that screamed at how badly I suck as a human being during my day
job. However, catharsis was created by
the Greeks in conjunction with the invention of the play where someone like Sophocles
probably wanted the audience to gouge their eyes out at the same time Oedipus
learned the truth about his marriage to his wife Jocasta. Catharsis shouldn’t be an act one does alone.
A writer wants an audience to share their thoughts
with. I could easily just keep a private
journal and write my self-loathing thoughts of how I’m a lousy Catholic especially
in Lent (My most active time with 10 & ¼ blogs written about it) because I
do a lousy job fasting, praying and almsgiving and because of this I’m going to
Hell because I love being selfish and self-centered instead of loving Jesus/God/Others.
But, there is part of me that was
hoping that maybe me going on and on about how Elvis is likely to be playing in
my brain while praying the rosary instead of some biblically appropriate Gregorian
chant will make you smile and maybe give you some schadenfreude about how you
are better than me.
So, lastly. Please I
really need to know what your random thoughts on my “Random Thoughts”. What
do you think?
