The Calm Before the Storm

The year, 1998, the year Google was born and the passing of Frank Sinatra. Our young lad having just had his mind blown by blue singing aliens, flying cars and a planet sized antagonist of pure evil stumbles out of the theater unsure of what he has just seen, but it will forever resonate with him.

Over time the lad came to know more about the circumstances surrounding the film and it's history. It made even more sense to him specifically. The director, a certain Mr Luc Besson, had written the space adventure story while in high school, something our lad had been doing up to that point as well (write an epic space adventure that is). The message behind the film, just as we need air, fire, water and earth to survive we also need love (the true fifth element), was so simple and yet could change the world.

Love was the fifth element.

The major life changing impact this film had on the lad was to guide his career of choice from aspiring novel writing to motion picture directing. This was the new goal, this was the new path chosen. The future sight landscape of his life cracked, morphed, transformed and came into clear focus. This single film bitch slapped his world into one fraught with hopes of Hollywood, the BBC or even French film production. He would become a director, write his space novel trilogy into a rip roaring space film trilogy and reach a perceived height his hero Luc Besson, whom he identified with so much to this point, had reached.

Once a legend, the Luc Besson.

To this day the lad still dreams of this, even taking major steps toward this goal. Hustled his way into a film school, graduated. Hustled his way into a film job, doing well. Now though the dream seems so much harder to obtain than it did to that 13 year old. Dreams are volatile that way though, so clear until you try to capture them...then tending to evaporate altogether. Unless you take steps to turn that dream into a reality through the use of goals you're doomed to the fate of Tantalus, forever thirsting and hungering for something unobtainable.

Eventually, you'll get that apple.

While these goals setting to capture the dream are fodder for another distant and hopeful blog (there is always hope), what comes next is the storm. As with all true and perfect stories, there needs to be a second act. One that takes this act and turns it on it's head.

That act is next.