Entry #2

Saturday, February 7, 2004

Telling Annamaria, the woman I often call “Bella” (Italian -- as she so proudly is -- for “beautiful”), about my dream was only scary in my mind. Past girlfriends and people in my life have been very damaging and hurtful to my dreams. I don’t blame them -- I dream big and I’m sure it seems scary. I know I challenge/frighten a good deal of people and inspire others (sometimes, those people are the same!). But I don’t apologize for my dreams anymore. 

Annamaria knew something was going on as came home and saw my still tear-streaked face from watching “Field of Dreams”. I told her everything, including the part about needing to go on this adventure, even though I didn’t know hardly anything about the tangible parts of making it “real” at this point. 

Annamaria remembers:

We were sitting at the kitchen table in our Las Vegas apartment. Bob sat down and told me about this adventure wit his father. I thought, wow what a great opportunity. I worried financially (how were we going to do it?), but when he explained it, I just thought it made sense. 

I knew he was going to go. The passion that he had about it...he gets this crazy look in his eye -- it says, “Don’t stop me.”

She said yes. 

With Annamaria’s blessing, I gained a new foot hold. She saw the same importance in this trip I did. She was willing to sacrifice pieces of herself to help make a dream of mine and my fathers come true. More than that, though, she was willing and wanting to jump into the frey and get her hands dirty. She was going to help me push this stone uphill. 

Annamaria and I talked shop for a few days, bouncing ideas off each other to answer PP’s questions (she has quite a PP in her own head). We wanted to shape this idea clearly enough for other people to see it and love it as we did. Good ideas have a ring or a hum to them -- they resonate. This one was vibrating both of our ribcages and we desperately wanted others to share that with us.

One idea that came to light was the idea of making a documentary of this experience. Documentaries had recently enjoyed a new-found popularity thanks largely (love him/them or hate him/them) to Michael Moore and “reality TV”. With my degree in broadcast journalism and my practical experience in filmmaking, this seemed like a natural fit. 

It would be low to no cost to do that, I reasoned to PP, as I had the camera and all I’d be doing was capturing what we were doing with it. As for editing, okay, I made the plunge upgrading from my G3 Powerbook to a G5 tower with a dual 1.8 processor. PP frowned at this expense but I knew I was going to have to crack a few eggs. 

Then, in a beautiful moment of quiet meditation, I heard a whisper in my ear: “What about doing this non-profit?” My breathing seized. I have always been a fan of non-profit and have supported such ventures and enterprises I believe in with the meager contributions I could throughout the years. But actually doing non-profit work...I mean, I had said I wanted to. And the universe knows I’ve said I will do the work “when the time is right”. 

Funny how sometimes the right time chooses you and not you it. I guess it knows, left up to me, even with the best intentions, it might never get chosen. Annamaria and I had recently read and were both particularly inspired by Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner’s book, “Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good”. It all fit. 

So that would become part of the pitch -- we’ll do this non-profit, donating whatever we make from the film to a Parkinson non-profit group. Which one? PP asked. Which ever one loves us the most, I answered. Surely they’ll all love us, what we’re doing and be thankful for our gracious offer, right?

The movie can be seen here. Please watch it and share it with friends. 100% proceeds benefit the Michael J Fox Foundation.