Freeze!

First of all, thanks for your patience. I had some repairs made to my wrist back in September and was out of commission from a typing perspective for a few weeks. Thanks for all the good thoughts sent my way and I hope nobody got frustrated and gave up on me completely. Because if they did, they would miss out on the following Really Good Idea. While my fingers were out of commission, the old brain kept right on working and I think I'm really on to something here - so bear with me.

If you have ever been to a Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day event, the opening ceremonies in particular, then you have heard the following speech. If you have been to more than one such event, you may have it memorized and can recite it right along with me. It is pure Jenne Fromm. It is beautifully written and, from what I have seen, always equally beautifully delivered. Jenne Fromm is the National Spokesperson for the 3-Day and she deserves the credit for inspiring my Really Good Idea. I transcribed her "opening ceremonies" speech from video of the events I have participated in and from watching others that have been posted on YouTube and I excerpted it here:

"Moments. Wonderful, lifetime moments.
Rights of passage that shape our lives.
Milestones that represent a life's journey.
A baby's first step. A wedding kiss.
Blowing out the candles on a birthday cake - or loved ones reunited.
Moments we all deserve to look forward to but
when breast cancer invades, lives are so rudely interrupted -
stealing those precious moments away.

We are here now so that in the future, we will reminisce
about reunions with those we love and not
about our memories of them.

We come together to bring all possible joy to each birthday
and to give each graduate the gift of standing with both parents.

Today we are here because you have answered the call
to do something extraordinary - and that's the remarkable thing
about this lifetime moment. It's a celebration - measured in miles -
of a shared conviction that
Everyone Deserves a Lifetime."

Wouldn't it be great if we could freeze those moments!? Those fleeting instants where everyone is healthy and happy and gathered together in joy and celebration. In reality we can't. We freeze them in snapshots and pictures in our mind where they can remain forever. But that's about all we can do. Or is it?

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the idea of a "flash-freeze." It's a public "flash-mob" type event where participants involved freeze for a given amount of time in a public space spontaneously to the surprise of everyone else around. Flashmobs started out as a sort-of performance art, I believe initially as a challenge to conformity but they have evolved over the last 5 or 10 years to take many forms. (Who's more non-conformist than a bunch of 3-dayers anyway?! Aren't we accused almost daily of being out of our minds, of taking on the impossible and drinking some sort of Kool-aid?! This should be right up our alley!)

The point of most flashmobs is essentially point-less though. They are about creating a spectacle and giving people an opportunity to step outside of their norm. Sure it can wake someone up who has been lulled to clueless slumber by their routine and remind them to change it up a bit. There's still some magic to life if you look around for it. That's a good lesson and these things are important, albeit simplistic . But I think we have the opportunity to lend some real gravity, magnitude and thoughtfulness to the basic idea.

The 3-Day Walkers and Crew already create a spectacle and wake people up wherever we go. A couple thousand pink-clad and laughing troopers stomping thru the neighborhood or handing out PB&J graham crackers has a tendency to do that. But what if we incorporated a flash freeze. If everybody along that several mile long pink column and all the support staff and crew STOPPED - mid-stride, mid stretch, mid sip of Gatorade, mid shoe-tie, mid-hug, mid-laugh, mid tear-wipe, mid-groan--- - and froze. Just for a couple of minutes. We move well beyond spectacle and awareness at that point. We become art. Yes, in some ways we already are art in that we create an emotional response wherever we go - but that's largely due to our sheer numbers and willingness to subject ourselves to the discomforts of the event to make our point and raise our money. We stir feelings of empathy and compassion from even the most detached and dispassionate of observers. But I'm talking about a whole new level of meaning here. And I think people would get it.

It feels a little "Field of Dreams" right now, I know - Like I'm saying "if we build it, they will come." But I really believe "if we do it, they will comprehend." We will all feel it when we stop - we'll be silent and standing still but we'll actually be screaming it out - "NO, we can't freeze those moments at the graduation or the baby shower or the retirement party or the wedding. But we CAN freeze this moment!" And then we'll all always have it. And so will they. The 3-Day accomplishes so much already. I think this is one more thing it could accomplish - It can give us all - literally - one more moment. One more wonderful, lifetime moment. To keep forever.

I plan to write about this more in the near future. I would like to build support for the concept. If you have never seen a flash-freeze, I invite you to check out the three video links I just posted. They are three good examples; one is from New York, one from Paris and one in a supermarket! In one of them, a little girl happens upon the seemingly spontaneous scene and you can sort of tell by her face that the experience has invigorated a sense of magic in her - a sense of embracing the out-of-the-ordinary. Reactions also seem to imbue a sort of respect for people choosing to do something abnormal. These are beautiful things. But a 3-Day type event along these lines would be even more beautiful because it would go so far beyond the surface wake-up call to create a lasting symbol of the tangible permanence of the people we love and the lasting moments with them that we will treasure forever.

I hope you like my "Really Good Idea." And I hope if you do, you will spread the word. Let's see if we can't get a 3-day flash freeze going at an event in 2011. Let's all, once again, answer the call to do something extraordinary.