LIFE LESSONS

Rethinking Pride

My long, winding journey through social consciousness

Edith Lee Payne, of Detroit, was a young marcher participating in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The march coincided with her 12th birthday. — Rowland Scherman, Getty Images, Aug. 28, 1963. CC2.0.

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I’ve always had an aptitude for remembering lines from movies. If I can hear someone say it in my head, if I can picture it as it was in the film, I will remember it forever. It’s the indefatigable sorcery of cinema, where the storytelling becomes part of one’s consciousness and helps us navigate a complex world.

Growing up in the latter half of the 20th century, with no access to the internet, movies were our portal into unknown worlds at a time when filmmakers were introducing the public to many strange new realities, both real and imagined.

There’s something about the power of movies that allows the details to stick in our brains with a degree of tenacity that other mediums simply don’t possess. I believe it’s the magic of the fuller sensory experience, whereby music, dialogue, narration, and imagery come together to leave an indelible mark on our subconscious. I may know many things about a subject, but if I’m writing about it, it will be a line from a movie that comes to me first. It’s the trailer of the idea. The bit that explains the point.