It is absolutely amazing to me how outside experiences can influence the written word. If we lived in a utopian society where everyone was one big happy family, would the Wizard of Oz even make sense on a thematic level?
What brought all this on you might ask...or you might not. Well, on September 11th of this year in the midst of remembering all of the pain and Alan, the entertainment world lost two major players. Johnny Cash and John Ritter both passed on. Both immensely talented, but for me the losses were on two separate ends of the spectrum. Johnny Cash had lived an incredibly full life and recorded right up til the end. He was like the terminally ill great uncle that sparks the over-used phrase of, "he's better off, the suffering is over." It's so out of place and simply used as filler for the empty space that they have left.
Ritter on the other hand, was taken way before his time. His newest contribution, though mostly one-liners and filler, had it's moments. Tonight was different. Back when I was younger, I fancied myself an actor. I was told I wasn't bad and even had a passing thought to drama as a major in college. While flying around in this fantasy world, I read a lot of books on the craft of acting and going back to the most lucid theme in all of them...Draw on your personal experiences to create a believable character. Tonight I watched four people fighting real, raw emotion while trying to formulate the words set before them by a writer who was no doubt trying to do the same thing. So, in the midst of a falling tear I realized that whether you know it or not each person that you file into your subconscious has an effect on you.
I just attended my 10 year class reunion. We lost a member of our class to epilepsy. It tore some of us apart. And, though I've thought of her often since she was taken from us it only took a simple mention at the reunion to stun the crowd into silence. And, though I've never met John Ritter or Johnny Cash both affected me just as profoundly as Lisa did. And thinking of the three of them again makes me hope that somewhere up there the three of them are having dinner at the same table with Alan, June and Jesus.

Apologies for the rambling, I'm starting to get back into this. And the word lucid comes to you courtesy of Craig.