Damon Lindelof on Screenwriting

This is a long article. Damon Lindelof has been involved in writing some of the biggest hit movies of the last few years. He talks about the reality of Hollywood screenwriting at length in this interview. And if you want to understand the worldview that goes into a major Hollywood production, it’s fairly on display.

• Once you spend more than $100 million on a movie, you have to save the world,” explains Lindelof. “And when you start there, and basically say, I have to construct a MacGuffin based on if they shut off this, or they close this portal, or they deactivate this bomb, or they come up with this cure, it will save the world—you are very limited in terms of how you execute that. And in many ways, you can become a slave to it and, again, I make no excuses, I’m just saying you kind of have to start there. In the old days, it was just as satisfying that all Superman has to do was basically save Lois from this earthquake in California. The stakes in that movie are that the San Andreas Fault line opens up and half of California is going to fall in the ocean. That felt big enough, but there is a sense of bigger, better, faster, seen it before, done that.

Huh. Read more.

All the Radical I Can Manage 

This was so helpful to me. I don’t even have words for it. Barnabas Piper wrote it.

• Sometimes faith isn’t radical; sometimes it’s just holding on. It’s not intellectual in the slightest and neither is it particularly well-argued. It doesn’t seek to change the world or do anything dynamic. It is not on any mission and it’s not a unique use of gifts. It is just holding on tight because that’s all it can do at the time.

My soul needed that. Read more.

When You Pray With Your Children, You Teach Your Children to Pray

Tim Challies writes about a realization he had about praying with his children.

• It was a perfunctory prayer. It was lacking in enthusiasm and joy and confidence. I have shown more interest in taking out the trash. I sent them back to bed and went back to what I was doing.  

I’ve definitely been guilty of the same thing. Read more.

How to Help Your Child Read with Discernment

Christina Fox provides a great starting point for helping your children develop discernment as they read.

• Selecting good books for our kids to read is important to their growth in faith as well as in their literacy, knowledge, and emotional life. Teaching them how to do it themselves is even better.

This is a discussion we so need to be having. I think my grid would be slightly different, but we need to have a grid! Read more.

Around the Warren:

Confessions of an Angry Dad 

S. D. Smith started our week with an honest look at anger and humility.

• Recently I medaled in the Hypocrisy Olympics. Allow me to explain. The day before my “accomplishment” our Bible reading included the passage in James where he writes, “the anger of man doesn’t bring about the righteousness of God.” I had talked with the kids about this passage in great detail, breaking it down. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only…” “Be slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to become angry…” I explained to them what I have heard my own dad say over and over, “What you say you do is not what you do. What you do is what you do.” I was insightful. Then, the next day, it happened.

A breath of fresh air. Go read more.

A Majestic Interview with Jennifer Trafton

Jennifer Trafton shares thoughts about teaching creative writing and fostering imagination.

•  I love existing, for a few hours a week, in a world where imagination has no ceiling and no floor. Where the most discombobulated spelling can frame the most marvelous and hilarious thoughts. Where self-consciousness and criticism have not yet squeezed creativity into a box.

Read more.

Books That Live in Us: Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin

Clay Clarkson writes about a book his family loved.

• We are not a cat family, but when you find yourself stuck in a cabin on a hillside in Gatlinburg, TN during an unanticipated snowstorm, with three teens and a seven year-old, you make exceptions. Everyone now remembers a cold afternoon, hot chocolate, and warm blankets to snuggle under on the couch as we read a 1947 story about a 1747 boy, Benjamin West, and his saucy cat Grimalkin.

Love it! Read more.

Something to Try with Your Kids:

18 Fun Things to Try Before Summer Ends

I saw school buses yesterday. There’s still some time to get some of these great ideas in under the wire. Tip Junkie has 18 different ideas. Read more.

And Something Fun to Watch

This one is for the kids — especially the younger ones. These kids (And, one presumes, their dads) manage to make a great little cop show out of an afternoon at the park:

Thanks for reading! We’re on your side.