Storytelling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StNvFjirQks

A Question of Faith is a Christian based movie, directed by Kevan Otto. The movie was released on September 29, 2017. The movie focuses on forgiveness, driving safety and donating organs. A teenager, Maria, was operating a vehicle while texting and driving. Her mother had warned her several times it was dangerous to text and drive, because she could harm herself or someone else. Maria was making a delivery, while responding to a text and struck a 12 year old boy who was crossing the street. Eric is pronounced brain dead and his parents have to decide whether to pull the plug. Maria is sent to jail for homicide by a vehicle. While Eric is still on ventilators when a young singer, Michelle, falls out from heart issues and is hospitalized. Once Eric's parents decide to pull the plug, his heart is donated to Michelle. Each family has a hard time accepting the events that took place. They all begin to question their faith. Circumstances throughout the movie bring all three families together and they begin to heal, upon meeting each other, and learning the others stories.

The tone was set a few minutes into the movie. The accident where Maria hit Eric took place not long after the movie began. "The opening sets the tone for the story, the audience needs to be given presuppositions about the type of tale they're reading" (Weiland 339). "Set the tone of your story right from the start" (Weiland 341). The movie opened with Maria driving and her mother scolding her for texting while driving. "The stories open with characters, preferably the protagonist. Even the most plot-driven tales inevitably boil down to characters" (Weiland 339). The movie opened with conflict and set the stage for the remainder of the movie. "If there is no conflict, there is no story (Weiland 339)." Conflict makes the story or movie worth watching, reading, or being told. "Conflict keeps the pages turning, and turning pages are nowhere more important than in the beginning" (Weiland 339). Stories that have meaning leaves its readers with wanting more, they begin to wonder and ask questions about what is going to happen next. "You can't just tell readers what is going on in your story; you have to give them enough information to make them want to ask questions, so you can answer them" (Weiland 340). It is important to keep your audience's attention. "Opening lines offer authors their first and best opportunities to make a statements about their stories" (Weiland 341). It is up to the author to catch our attention and make us want to read or watch what they present to the world. People lean towards what they can relate to, what they find interesting, or appealing. "Your hook is your first chance to impress readers, and like it or not, first impressions will make you and break you" (Weiland 342). It is important to grab the attention of the audience. "Plan the hook carefully and wow readers so thoroughly they won't ever forget the opening scene" (Weiland 341). The audience's reviews of a story will determine the feedback. It is vital to make a good first impression, and to catch the attention of others at the beginning, so they will be left wanting more.

Blog 3 (Happiness)

"Happiness is referred to as the good life, flourishing, or an emotional state of well-being"(wikipedia.com). Being happy is being positive and surrounding yourself with positive energy. Happiness is developed from within.  It is up to the individual if they allow things of the world, personal problems, or work get them down. Should we as people allow things that occur in the world or society determine our happiness? No, because we could be depressed all our life, if we let natural disasters, crimes, hate, death and other things keep us from being happy.

Anthony Phillips feels if people are happy with the things going on within the world they are not living in reality. He basically feels people should let issues of the world effect their lives. "Three constituents of happiness are pleasure, engagement and meaning. Through casual conversation, we can increase positive emotion about the past, present and future"(Selimann et al 540). Things are going to happen within our lives and the world all the time.  That does not mean we won't have moments where we feel down about something that we may go through or a tragic event broadcast for the world to know. Things happen every second, of every minute, of every day. If we surround our lives or focus on the negatives things like Anthony Phillips wants us to, we'll all be depressed and have mental disorders. We have to live our life for today because tomorrow is not promised. "We must live in fullness, without waste of time and potential" (Auden 544). Time is something we can not get back. There are so many things that cause stress dealing with life and things that occur within the world; but if we can't do anything to solve problems of the world, why let them depress us? Mental illness and depression is real, so unlike Anthony Phillips I'd choose to be happy than to create issues worrying about things out of my control. "Psychologists and psychiatrists were able to make people less miserable 50 years after World War II" (Seligmann et al 539). When you're unhappy its a process of getting back to a happy place, if the person is able to bounce back from what caused them to become unhappy. "Suffering drags you deeper into yourself. It gives people a lot more accurate sense of their own limitations, what they can and can't control" (Brooks 567).

We never know what a person is going through. Maybe Anthony Phillips is an unhappy person since he wants people to base their happiness on the state of the world. "Recovering from suffering is not like recovering from a disease, may people don't come out healed; they come out different" (Brooks 568). Life is what you make of it. We can only face each day with a positive mind set and pray for good outcomes. We have to remain strong dealing with life and society.





www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/opinion/sunday/a-formula-for-happiness.html