This stop actually started during the earlier stages of my senior film production—so it truly is “Detour #1.”
My all-time favorite spiritual song, which has meant so much to me over the years ends the first verse with the line “…in darkness, He giveth a song.” Indeed He has, and often, and not always just in dark times. This detour started with a bit of one though, and to help “cheer me up” an awesome buddy of mine took me out to a local restaurant. Not suspecting a thing, we soon noticed a group of old men walk in, sit down and start singing—barbershop songs! Well, my buddy and I enjoyed this impromptu performance, and, seeing our enjoyment, the guys invited us to come out to one of their meetings and sing with them. My buddy never did (pity), but I took them up on that offer—again, not suspecting a thing. I find that to be the case with things God drops into my life—I don’t suspect a thing until it’s already going strong.
So, this time, God didn’t “giveth a song,” oh no, instead He gave me a bunch of old guys with books full of songs. I thought it was just to cheer me up and give me a fun pastime, but again with the whole not suspecting a thing thing—I couldn’t have been more shortsighted.
How does this detour apply to the pursuit of Biblical animation? Well, that’s a good question. I met these guys during the process of making my film. A couple of them came to school where we recorded some songs that I still intend to some day incorporate into an animated film (which hopefully will happen—we’ll see).
As time progressed, however, I’ve began to see that barbershop is so much more than that on this pursuit. When I finished college, the recession was in full swing—very tough to find work. Barbershop helped keep me sane with all that. Right after I finished I was in my first show (and was so nervous the butterflies in my stomach had formed governments and were waging war with each other).
Barbershop, well, my barbershop group, the 13th Colony Sound, has provided me with a host of older men as mentors. There is a tenor, Tom, who has become my business mentor. With the big opportunities I mentioned from January, God was urging me in a certain way on a certain detail. One night, at the very same restaurant where I met these guys, Tom just started advising me on business, giving me in specifics what God had urged in general. I tried not to let my mouth hang open as I realized that God was talking through Tom. When all things come to fruition with this Biblical animation thing and me, regardless of whether the still current project goes through, Tom’s business advice is the thing that will have helped most.
There is also an interesting man, Ray, who is the most amazing music guy I know. He graduated from Julilard probably 50 years ago or so, and he has also become a mentor to me. A mentor in an area that actually happens to be it’s own detour. When all things come to fruition with this Biblical animation thing and me—with God’s overall plan for me, his advice on that particular detour is the advice that helps me become a fuller, more well-rounded artist.
There are so many more such men that I could tell you about, but I’ll be content for now to mention just one more. I’m not sure how exactly this relates to Biblical animation, but it’s too awesome to leave out, so humor me, and this is a very specific awesome blessing God has purposed to give me, so yeah, here it is.
The man is a tenor, and his name is Dan. Dan is probably the oldest man in the group, and has the most interesting story of anyone I’ve ever met. One of the first things I did with 13th Colony is sing the National Anthem at a historic cemetery on Memorial Day one year. I asked Dan if he served, and he told me he did in WWII. Amazed, I asked him, “Europe or Pacific?” He responded, “Neither. I was at the laboratory in Los Alamos, working on the atom bomb.” As I came to discover, he made the trigger mechanisms for all the A-bombs used in the war—including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My Grandpa Daniel was in the Pacific back then, and he always believed very strongly that Truman’s decision to drop the bomb saved his life, which consequently saved my dad’s and mine, since my dad had not been born yet. To get to meet this man is a huge honor, and yet I get to be friends with this guy and sing with him all the time. One last thought about Dan, who I do believe truly knows the Lord, he did this thing that saved so many people and made such an impact on the world when he was about the age I was when I met him. It goes to show you: even as a young man, full of ambition but not much else, God can use you to change the world.Big detour, no doubt, but I’ve picked up a giant load of good things here. I am now not only a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society (formerly known as SPEPBSQSA), but I’m a current board member of the 13th Colony Sound (the Savannah Chapter). I’m in a couple of quartets—which are awesome in so many ways—and I’ve even started to write barbershop music, which will probably eventually find it’s way into my Biblical animation. How those two things will merge together is for your imagination and mine to dream up for now.
It is true that a lot of this post isn’t really necessarily all that much about Biblical animation. It is also true, however, that it is entirely about the way that God is animating me. He knows where all this is going. His leading brought me to SCAD, lead me to study animation, and instilled within me this desire for Biblical animation. He’s leading me even now, through these uncertain times, and He will lead me wherever I need to go.
