Long before I had my own blog, I just tormented people verbally with my thoughts, instead of writing them. :) Back in 2005, you may remember me raving about a "little known" book entitled "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller. I really loved it, and as "cutting edge" as I like to be with my reading, I may have been a little bit behind the trend, as the book was already two years old when I read it.
It is difficult to describe what "Blue Like Jazz" is about. In its most simplistic form, it is about a man's journey to find God outside of man made religious boundaries. But it is deep (not Ravi Zacharias deep) and conversational. Donald Miller is a great storyteller, and has the ability to make you enjoy the people in his life as much as he does. But he also has a personality in words that might rub some the wrong way. Most people have thoroughly enjoyed the book. I haven't heard many that haven't.
Strangely enough, I just learned that they are going to make a movie out of "BLJ." Having read the book, I couldn't imagine how they were going to do that. Then I came upon this tidbit of information regarding the screenplay of the movie, and then it began to make sense:
Steve Taylor (Director of the movie): It's about a 20-year-old from Houston who has basically grown up in church and is confused, disillusioned, and kind of at the place most college sophomores are. He decides to flee his upbringing and go to this school—Reed College—that he perceives as being the most opposite of where he's grown up in his life. I don't want to give away a lot, but essentially, the fictional "Don" character lives a lot of the experiences that Donald Miller writes and talks about in his book. The "Don" character is a lot different, but we thought that was the most interesting way to portray this experience.
Donald Miller: It's a movie about coming out of the closet regarding who you are as a person. The character happens to be a Christian and is very ashamed of that, but he's able to come out of the closet by the end of it. It's really a film more about a human being than it is about Christianity. Christianity is really just the thing that this human being is dealing with.
Now this is something I've gotta see!!!!!
PS- Donald Miller's next book is coming out in September 2009. Apparently, it is fiction. Interesting.....
PPS- In case you are wondering, the chairs passed inspection by Husband #1. Yippee! Now you can sleep... :)
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