Sunday Synopsis: ‘The Color Purple,’ People who brought me back from the Dead

"I remember when I was in the store with Miss Millie…I was feeling real down, I was feeling mighty bad…and when I saw you, I know there is a god and one day I was gon’ get to come home” – Sofia in “The Color Purple”

Of all my favorite movie quotes that I’ve featured on this blog (and in guest posts) time and time again, I never thought that a line from Steven Spielberg’s 80s drama “The Color Purple” -- starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey – would be among them. It wasn’t until a moment of sulking this past weekend, over a few seemingly huge mountains I need to climb (figuratively speaking) that I thought of the infamous dinner scene where Sofia (played by Winfrey) – as her father-in-law would describe -- rises from the dead.

For those of you who haven’t watched “The Color Purple,” please understand that I have paraphrased this quote as well as shortened it to include only the bit that spoke to me. There is a scene in this movie where Sofia must go grocery shopping to fulfill her duties as a maid for the wife of her town’s mayor and Celie (played by Goldberg) provides a helping hand by gathering the necessary groceries on Sofia’s list. Sofia later thanked Celie during dinner, after finally being released from jail and subsequently granted freedom from working for Miss Millie.

I love this particular movie quote because it isn’t about a higher power (to me, anyway), but rather, a glimpse of light at the end of what seems like a very long, dark tunnel that we’ll never get out of – until someone shows us some hope that there is another way -- that we’re not alone and somewhere, somehow – we can make it.

So today, I’m professing my love and devotion to not one – but two blogger friends – each of whom I dedicate the above movie quote:

Alana Garrigues who offers up fun writing exercises at Writercize is someone I think has a form of ESP when it comes to her interactions with me online. Aside from giving her readers cool ways to flex our mental muscles so that our brains don’t get dull, she also (unknowingly) resuscitated my energy and attempts to keep it moving – twice.

On one of my many sleepless nights, I was going through a major downturn even though a friend who I’ve known for some time gave me some pieces of clarity.

For some odd and almost unexplainable reason, several messages from Alana ignited something that removed me from the downward spiral that I found myself in at that time. Another incident occurred when I was no longer as active online as I would be, including on Twitter – around a time when my tweets would come regularly. New posts were only going up on Mondays for the Movie Meme that I host; I was lost and stressed out. It was then that Alana sent some sunshine my way – and so, I’m grateful for having met her.

I owe tremendous allegiance and gratitude to Herman Turnip, a devoted husband, father and IT genius who delves into a variety of goodies for the senses -- from the championing movie trailers of anxiously kick-ass releases to jumping out of airplanes, to five-minute stories and everything in between at Terrible Analogies.

Herman is a true blogging friend who’s been around since the early days of my blog – I’m talking back when my posts were so sporadic that you wouldn’t even know if I was going to put something up next week or next month. I’m talking back when even I wasn’t sure what the direction of this blog was going in, where I wanted to focus my attention with regards to topics and when my writing could’ve used much editing and several drafts before pushing the “publish” button. Since then, he is the one who comes to mind sometimes when I have writer’s block or am feeling sluggish or indecisive about my next move on the blogging front.

At times when I’m stuck for a voice or perspective to aim for, I just imagine that I’m writing directly to Herman; experts suggest that you writers should write to an audience – he is my audience. At times when I’m not in the mood to get up and write another post, I know I better damn well snap out of it and have something live sooner than later because I want to make sure that I’m accountable for keeping fresh posts on deck here.

There are nearly a dozen or so very specific people who I continue to be thankful to for reading my blog because they make it what it is and make my hours of research, last-minute trips and interviews worth doing; it is because of Herman, however, that I have continued (or try) to remain consistent in my blogging activities.

He tops the list of all my blogging friends who I am grateful to know due to his ongoing support, which keeps me aware that somebody is reading, so I need to make sure that there is something up for him (or her -- Hey Tina, this one’s for you!) to check out and discuss.

In addition to making some of the oddest discoveries that I’ve ever learned about, Herman has also been a dear friend in the non-blogging realm of things, sharing insight on some of the challenges and/or perspectives that I’ve pondered with regards to life/work matters. To speak of a blogger who I think is great and not name him would be a crime.

FYI & Other Stuff....

• As the first full week of May approaches, I have a long day planned for tomorrow, so the Monday Movie Meme will be posted in the evening this week (Monday, May 6th), as opposed to the morning – consider this a heads up! 

• Also, I'm still working on my 2013 A to Z Reflections and expect to post it on Wednesday.

• I was approved to be a presenter for the 2013 LAMMYS and will be announcing the winner in the category of Best Running Feature. The LAMMYS will begin on May 6th with announcements on YouTube and continues through May 16th when an official list of all winners will be published by The LAMB.

What is one of YOUR favorite movie quotes and why do you love it?

Is there any particular blogging friend that YOU want to profess your love and devotion to? If so, what makes him or her great?

Today’s Sunday Synopsis is a mash-up of two prompts from Jenni’s Blog Everyday in May Challenge. She asked participants to share their favorite quote and why they love it. She also wants participants to publicly profess their love and devotion to a fellow blogger friend while also explaining what makes them so great. The title and style of this post is inspired by Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out, who’s Sunday Summaries in 2012 highlighted people who mentioned the A to Z Challenge to their online network.

Cassmob at Tropical Territory also convinced me that I could switch-out “Summary” for a word that better matches the subject matter of this blog.

Comments

[Dee]

What a nice quote. You must have ESP too because I was feeling despair about life this morning. This gave me hope. So thank you.

And what a sweet shoutout to your blogger buddies. I will check then out.

[Nicole]

Dee,

Thank you for reading my Sunday Synopsis. Despair was my middle name this weekend but your mention of it is a huge reminder of how we're not the only ones feeling the brunt of the heavy clouds upon us. I'm glad that these latest musings of mine with regards to "The Color Purple" quote and my blogger friends brought you some hope; My hope is that you can keep that hope running with you on this day, tomorrow and in the days that follow. May you have all of the Sunshine that you need. Cheers to you!

[Jolie du Pre]

I don't know you're situation, but something tells me you need to give yourself a break. We writers and authors tend to worry about what other writers and authors are doing, and we tend to compete, even when we don't realize we're doing it. (If an author posts every day in her blog, and we don't, we feel bad about ourselves for not keeping up like the author does.) We need to respect our own individual circumstances and work with those.

[Nicole]

Jolie,

Thank you for your observations...it's funny that while my situation (the ones that are of more pressing matters, at least) is related to things other than writing, reading your comment made me take a step back to realize that I do have a tendency to worry about other writers when it comes to sides that they're making in certain areas where I want to improve, yet, have seen little to no progress. One example is my noticing of other bloggers' stats/traffic, readership numbers and sponsorships despite their being on free Blogger domains whereas it's been difficult for me to find sponsors despite me being on a hosted domain and being in a position to provide those sponsors with tax exemptions and write-offs due to my status as an artist. It baffles me sometimes....but my worries are related to other things.

That break you're suggesting might be much needed and I'm just not sure if I can get there anytime soon. You're so right in that we're often hard on ourselves, yet, would take it easy on others. We give other people a break but rarely give ourselves a break when we should. Maybe I'll get there someday. Thanks again for your comment and for reading my Sunday Synopsis :)

[hermanturnip]

Damn straight you know I'm going to give you grief for weak posts! Heh... ;-)

You, my friend, and nothing short of awesome. You're blog, even in the early days, has always been a source of inspiration for me, and I look forward to each and every one of your updates. I'm here just to support a fellow blogger who deserves as much recognition as possible. And from one cinephile to another, I got yer back!

Thanks for the shout out! Here's hoping that I can return the favor...

[Nicole]

Herman,

I'll take your grief anytime 'cause I know it comes from a genuine place, Ha! You've done so much for me that I am glad to be able to have provided some type of entertainment and/or cool movie information for your reading pleasure....the inspiration you say you receive is definitely icing on the cake, if you ask me. Good to know somebody has my back...that's hard to come by these days! Cheers to you buddy. You are the best :)