Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Alicia's Blue Hats

Just finished watching Field of Dreams in preparation for Opening Day. While I've seen it a hundred times, this time I particularly appreciated the scene where Terrence Mann (James Earl Jones) interviews long-time residents of Chisholm, Minnesota about Archibald "Moonlight" Graham. The last man he interviews goes into great detail about Doc Graham's relationship with his wife...by telling a story about how shopkeepers in town stocked nothing but blue hats knowing that Doc would buy one for her if he walked by.

A lazy writer only creates Doc Graham. A good writer creates Doc and his wife. A great writer creates Doc, gives his wife a name (Alicia) and builds a history between them that we only hear about second hand - never see. Amen.

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