The dream you don't want to end

I keep having these dreams about walking outside in a t-shirt. The air is balmy and pleasant and as I walk down the street all the trees unfold their leaves and flowers against the big blue bowl of sunlight overhead. That's about all there is to the dream. It's very simple... but waking up from it SUCKS.

I made my mom go see Avatar last night. I would watch that movie every day for the rest of my life. I don't care if the plot is predictable (and really, there ARE twists and turns that you wouldn't expect; I was shocked the first time I saw it when the sky people took out Hometree because I thought for sure the "good guys" would win).

But the thing that starts me drooling is that giant green phosphorescent jungle, with that huge planet all lit up in the sky behind it. It's impossible. Impossible. But you believe it in the movie, and I wish I could believe in it for real. And those bizarre pterodactyl creatures they ride, and the floating mountains (without valleys, I might add; yes Descartes, a mountain CAN be conceived without one).

Look, I'm already halfway to being a Na'vi. I've got the height and the tree-hugging thing down. Now I just need to make my skin turn blue (easily remedied by drowning) and make my soul grow out of my hair (I'm not sure about that one yet but Brian Glenney might be able to help me).




The CGI is only half the reason this world is extraordinary. The other half is the culture. It's so beautiful and intricate. To think that sprang from somebody's imagination! Do I have a world like that tucked away in my mind? I can only hope that as I continue to craft Myriad, it will grow into something this complex and significant. Something a reader will believe and invest in.

The first time I saw Avatar, my friend Shark was with us, and as soon as the credits rolled she said, "Did you get it, guys? Or do we need to watch it again?" I honestly didn't realize she meant the environmental message. Sure, it's obvious, but what knocked me off my feet was the redemptive message. The movie ends with Jake Sully being reborn. I mean, how Christian is that? To use Christianese, think of it this way: he willingly chooses to die to his old self - a weak and broken body - and is born a second time ("without entering his mother's womb again") into a new and perfect body. How Christian is that? Who puts that in a movie these days? I'm actually...... inspired.

What movie moves you like that? What world would you live in if you got the chance? What movie is the dream you wish you never had to wake up from?