Sense of wonder opens doors of creativity, possibility

Bill Grimes
Effingham Daily News

March 27, 2008 02:31 pm

— More than 400 people celebrated local creativity Wednesday morning at the Rosebud Theatre, and one of the people that makes that creativity happen marveled at it.
Teacher-filmmaker Craig Lindvahl, keynote speaker at the semi-annual Effingham County Vision 2020 breakfast, told the group they were all in the wrong place.
Or were they?
“People in communities this size don’t gather in a beautiful venue like this to talk about what we’re going to talk about today,” Lindvahl said. “Shouldn’t we be in New York ... Hollywood?
“Fact is, we are here.”
Lindvahl said geography doesn’t mean anything these days.
“... Geography is no longer a limiting factor when it comes to any sort of creative work,” he said. “Truth is, geography is almost never a limiting factor in 2008.
“It’s about your dreams, it’s about your vision, about your willingness to learn, about your determination and about how you view the world.”
Lindvahl said personal world views affect creativity.
“If you view the world as something to be kept at arm’s length, something that holds only danger and fear, something that threatens to take away your comfort through change that is coming too fast — geography WILL limit you,” he said.
“And if you insist on viewing the world solely through the prism of your own experience ... you’re limited by more than geography.
“If, however, you view the world as a place full of wonder, full of opportunity, full of amazing people, you’re limited only by the number of hours in each day.”
Lindvahl also talked about how he started in filmmaking, despite no formal training.
“I just knew what it would feel like to marry all the elements of a great show, and I just knew I had to do that,” he said, adding he studied a documentary by the late, great CBS newsman Charles Kuralt.
“I charted every single shot, transcribed every single word, timed every music cue and dissected the documentary in every way I could think.
“That’s how I learned. That’s when I knew I had discovered my life’s calling,” he said. “I still didn’t really know how. I just knew that I had to do it.”
Lindvahl also plugged his newest film about a minor league baseball field in Montana, as well as the fifth annual student film festival set for next week. He said many folks from out of town will attend the student festival.
Lindvahl also encouraged people to keep their dreams alive.
“Too many people grow up and buy into the notion that dreams are for someone else,” he said. “You stay where you are, and you view everything you don’t already know as a threat.”
Effingham has many people who think ahead, however.
“We’re chock full of dreamers here,” he said.
Morning entertainment included a breakfast performance by the Effingham Junior High School jazz band, the vocal trio of Kendra Johnson, Faye Winter and Jill Morris, and local actors Dave Parker, Greg Corder and Jeanne Wolff, who told about all of Vision 2020 through the medium of a fake radio newscast.
Emcee Steve Raymond said the next Vision 2020 breakfast will be held in Dieterich sometime in October. An exact date has not been set.
Bill Grimes can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 131 or bill.grimes@effinghamdailynews.com.

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