“Did you try mom’s birthday?”

I know that it is important to be careful what we create because there is always someone out there that will interpret your art, or media, as taking some kind of stance or position. I remember talking to people about Wall-e and having them tell me it had to do with global warming and with the environment. I suppose that is clearly what it is about but part of me just wanted to enjoy the movie, while I know others were heated one way or another about this debate when they saw this. So I guess what I am saying first off is that even if we are not trying to portray some message the audience might take one home with them anyway, for better or for worse. I am sure that there will be times when I will want to share something that has a deep meaning or stance. But I am glad that some movies are just movies. I really want to share a video but I cannot find the one that comes to mind. I remember as a kid watching a commercial where two young boys were systematically going through all of the significant dates or numbers they could think of to try to open their dad’s gun case. I believe at the end of the commercial they get the case open and the screen goes black. I know that it was suppose to scare me into not getting into my dad’s guns, or to not even have a gun when I grew up. Now that I think about this commercial I think it is kind of ridiculous, but not impossible, that two kids would continue to try to open this case with anniversary dates, birthdays, and license plate numbers to get this open. I distinctly remember that one kid was on the computer looking up birthdays and entering combinations that they had already tried into Excel or something like that. I do think that as artist we need to think about the messages that we are sending people. And that we have a responsibility to not lie or stretch the truth, or at least try to avoid it as much as we can. We need to send out good messages to the world, realistic, and relevant messages.