Seeing More Than Just With Your Eyes
I was out of town in October when I got a notice that someone who was a cancer survivor was putting together a benefit concert for a little girl who needed treatment for the exact same type of cancer. This little benefit turned out to be a great experience for me and is still on my list of projects. Read on to see what my experience was like…
Meet Sarah Outwater:
Sarah was diagnosed with metastatic Retinoblastoma when she was little. She is blind as a result. Even though she doesn’t see with her natural eyes anymore, her determination and talent has definitely not suffered as a result. Sarah is very musically talented. She plays about 5 different instruments, composes her own music, and also sings. On top of that, she records and produces music albums. One day she was ‘watching’ TV and a news broadcast came on about a little girl, Linda Moreno, in Tucson, Arizona who was suffering from the same type of cancer that she battled when she was little. Retinoblastoma starts in the eyes and if it is the metastatic type, it will start spreading to other parts of the body. Sarah’s cancer started to spread to her brain, while Linda’s started to spread to her bones.
Linda’s mom had no money to pay for the very expensive procedure, so Sarah decided to organize a benefit concert and recording to help Linda. This whole project involved anyone who could provide musical talent, organization, facilities, money or whatever in order to provide the gift of life for this little girl.
It probably should come as no surprise since this is almost exactly what happened to Sarah when she was little. Somehow, (and I don’t know the story all that well), Barbara Streisand got word of Sarah’s plight and contributed to her treatment and recovery from the deadly disease.
So the beginning of my involvement with the project began when I responded to a general initial email to help Sarah. I only thought I would be able to offer technology support in her publicizing efforts, but in the end I also was able to make a musical contribution too. I had to dust off the old vocal chords, but I was able to sing tenor and baritone in a couple of peices for the CD recording and benefit concert.
But also…there was the idea of using media to show everyone else what it took to put all this together. So in conjunction with my musical contribution, I started to bring my digital camera and camcorder along for the ride at some of the rehearsals and other functions. That turned into the documentary, "Making Life for Linda". It was quite the experience. Sarah has quite the affinity for using media to communicate, even though she doesn’t see with her natural eyes. When we were in my studio putting together all the clips and making the movie, using only her ears, she helped to decide where to put the interviews with other project contributors and where and when to fade in the musical tracks that accompanied the video.
I’ve never conducted interviews for a documentary like this one before, but it turned out quite well, I think.
As a result of the whole experience, I find it fascinating to see the way that someone who has suffered and has lived a life of not being able to see with their natural eyes can look at life and find a way to not just be a consumer of good, but also a producer of it. Granted, everyone has weakness, including me, but one gift we all have is the ability to reflect light if we are polished enough. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ tells us that we must take His light and reflect it back to the world so that we can know to what source we can look to for real happiness:
"Ye are the alight of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
"Matthew 5:14-16"
So at any rate, since pictures are worth a thousand words, I have to share with everyone (myself included as I come back to read this sometime later), all it took to put this together. The credit of completing this should go to the cause of just doing one’s best to do what is right, not necessarily to any one person. At its heart though is the need to give to others and if this presentation accomplishes its goal, the people who benefit will be in order of importance: Linda Moreno and her family, you the reader/viewer, and then Sarah and myself.
Making Life for Linda from midiman on Vimeo.