Okay...for real this time....
I am writing this blog because someone else started their blog back up. And this person inspires me a great deal:
She lives.
Anyway. More on that later.
Today I made my first paper airplane in at least three years. I was working in the copy room, and I had some scrap paper. The recycling bin was on the other side of the room, so I made a paper airplane to fly it over to the bin. As I was lining up the paper, and folding it to achieve top aerodynamics, I began to ponder why it had been so long since I indulged in this particular bit of frivolity. The familiar creases came back and I folded my favorite design, a lean, sleek paper airplane built for accuracy and speed.
When I was a kid, the pursuit of the perfect paper airplane constituted a great deal of my free time. The science museum had a paper airplane course, with wind hazards and a little opening in a cardboard box at the end as your target. I would come up with design after design, intent on mastering airplane origami. There were actually books published that taught how to fold airplanes effectively. I thought that I could build the perfect paper airplane. The one that would fly perfect and straight, do a flip and land smoothly on the ground.
But I stopped making paper airplanes. I don’t know, I guess I just grew up. So, as I’m sitting in the office, folding again. I realize that paper airplanes are like childhood dreams. All you need are a few folds and the right throw and you’ll be flying. When you get older, you see that in order to fly you need a conglomorate of factors. Millions of dollars for equipment and building. Training as an engineer or pilot, all of these nuts and bolts needed to free yourself from the constrains of the ground. The reality of the world pops in, and dreams are grounded by the crushing weight of circumstance.
I am working on a movie. I am as low on the totem pole as one can be, but I’m on the totem pole, and I am seeing the nuts and bolts of making movies. I am seeing the making of the plane, and to be honest it is intimidating. I’m used to folding my movies into existence. And they are what they are, light diversions that are poignant for a moment, but ultimately can only go so far. I want to learn how to build a real plane. I want my movies to travel the world. But, I’m learning that may be a lengthy proposition.
I'm gonna hang in there, and see if I can make the perfect paper airplane, out of nuts and bolts.
