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04/09/2002 Archived Entry: "Request for comment."

OK, OK, I lied. I'm back before I expected. But it's related to the project that's eating most of my time and keeping me from thinking about things like girls and baseball and airplane archaeology.

You see, I've got this transcript of the video clips I spent the weekend finding and stringing together. My ace cameraman (video-wise; Tom Gatermann's the best shutterbug I expect to ever meet) thinks its fantastic. But he's as partial as can be. This is about Luke, whom I've talked about here before, and Brad and Luke are good friends. Brad even asked some of the questions.

And Luke, I know you may be reading this. This is sooner than I wanted you to see this, but dem's da breaks. I'll have a copy of the finished product for you soon. Unless the general consensus is that I've made garbage, in which case I'll start over.

So here's an almost word-for-word transcript of the clips I've strung together. I want to know if they're as good as Brad thinks they are.

Background information on Luke: He's been confined to a wheelchair since before he was a teenager. His movement is limited now to his thumbs and some facial movement. He breathes with the aid of a ventilator. His contact with the outside world is limited to his computer and some friends who come over every couple of weeks or so to talk and pray and read the Bible together. (That's how he knows Brad and me.)

So here's Luke, in his own words:

The disease I have is Duschene (sp) Muscular Dystrophy. It attacks the muscles. When you are in this situation and you're sitting and you can't get up and do all those things, things that people sometimes take for granted, you you have to think. You have to be there. So it's either. For me it's either think about the anguish of the disease, which is fruitless, or think about the things that really matter. Um, I have to admit that the sometimes the disease, the effects of it, do catch up to me and it hurts, but God kind of fills it in.

He's given me the grace, grace even sufficient enough to deal with this. And I just have to take it. Take it day by day. God is faithful to provide. If we ask him. The hope he gives is free. All we have to do is accept it, those things like hope and peace. Doesn't have to do with any things. It's just the people around me. I've got all this support. There are people that are in my situation right now who don't have that.

Try not to look at your situation as the end of the world, the end of your life. I would advise them to go to God with their problems. I would advise them to always communicate what they thought, and what they felt, to the people around them and keep them close. Realize that the people that take care of you do it because they love you, not because they have to. I live with my grandmother, and my uncle also lives here. And my dad. Even if there's not a crisis, family crisis, we all just seem to rally around each other.

I have great friends too. They include people that are standing in this room.

What I want my response to be is to go to God all the time. He has the answers. I can't do anything about my situation. If I was angry all the time and kicking and screaming about it, what good would that do? So going to God is the answer. Why should I get angry with God when, although he allowed it, he's given me so much support. He's given me the tools to deal with it as it is, and more than that, uh, because of his love, because of his grace, he gives me the strength to go beyond the disease.

People ask me sometimes why I don't get angry with God, and I just say, for what?

Dave's "Meet Luke" story is here.

Posted by dan @ 04/09/2002 07:57 PM CST

Oh, yeah: you wanted comments...

Check your karma points; this afternoon they were at "6".

Yeah, it's good...

Posted by dan @ 04/09/2002 07:59 PM CST

10!? I've never had anything go 10.

It looks and sounds good on screen too. Better than it works in print, I think, because you can see in the pictures that even breathing isn't something Luke can take for granted.

If it's a 10 in print, it's better than a 10 on screen. Too bad it's the first thing of any length I've ever shot; when you look at my raw footage, it shows. But I'll learn. And editing helps bad footage work better.

Posted by Dave F. @ 04/10/2002 02:57 AM CST

Thanks to everyone for the feedback, BTW.

Posted by Dave F. @ 04/10/2002 02:58 AM CST

Surprised that you hit a 10? NOT ME!!! You have a special gift for writing. When YOU write about something that touches YOU, it can't help but touch us. When it's computers you write about, those with a passion for computers are most affected. Likewise cars. Likewise airplanes. Likewise baseball. When you write about a fellow human being and his challenges (and victories), how can any of us not be touched?

Posted by Your biggest fan @ 04/10/2002 11:11 AM CST