(Sometimes someone else’s story helps ours. A confusing young life can lead u to be a stronger person. There is more to a person then what you see on the outside. Things will happen in a persons life to make them the person they are. Why do we forget that? -Chris.)
We Struggle, We learn, We Grow, and We can be stronger because of it.
By Tom Fritts
I guess I don’t really know why I’m writing this. When Chris asked me to write for this page I didn’t know exactly what to write about. So what the hell, ill give it a try.
My life was pretty normal as a kid, hanging out with friends, legos, camping with the family, fishing trips. It seemed like a great start. Then age 14 hit. My father lost his job so he and my mom both started working day jobs. So money quickly became tight and tensions grew. I started isolating myself from the family, going to friends places all the time. By the time I hit 16 I started hanging out with the older kids some even in college. I experimented with alcohol and drugs. Constantly coming home late with a buzz on or skipping class. By this time I was trying to see where I stood even sexually. I guess I always knew I was different. My parents saw texts from a guy I was interested in on my phone and without me knowing started watching more closely. Sure enough they caught me with someone. Immediately they decided they needed to “fix” me. 3 times a week I had to meet with someone at a local church and talk about how im sinning and that I’m basically going to hell. Personally I never have believed in God. I believe in the science of evolution. So I just thought this lady was freakin’ nuts. Plus I had to waste a perfectly good Thursday night with her every week. I started skipping the meetings too, I hated that my home was so disapproving of me. So I went out even more. Going to college parties and trying anything my friends would hand me. I was actually having a good time with them. They didn’t give a crap what my sexuality or beliefs were. By the time I was 17 almost 18, my father kicked me out of the house when he caught me smoking in the bathroom with my friend.
I packed my things and moved into the basement of my friends place. It was a bit skechy but his mom was the sweetest person I ever met, she encouraged me to apply to schools, told me about industrial design, and told me that I had a natural talent for the career. Once I moved to NYC and started school here at the art institute I made my new family, my friends.. I couldn’t ask for more. Yeah maybe it’s a bit dysfunctional, but their all I have they support me, love me and care for me. We go out we party, concerts, prank and all the other stuff that people would see as trouble or “bad Kids”. Maybe I did make bad decisions. But I never would have done differently if I had another chance.
I try to call my home once a month, but usually I never get an answer.. so I leave a voice mail just talking about how my life is going. I know my mom loves me so much. And she always has. And god I miss her so much. I wish she stood up to my father and told me I could have stayed. I also talked to my younger sister regularly. She means the world to me, and she always will. Now that she’s gone. I have realized. Life is so short. And I’m not about to change for anyone.
I am happy with myself. Some may be disappointed or feel pity on my past, but I’m happy it happened. I could never be here right now. I’d rather not have life be easy. I’m so over people judging me and telling me how to live. That’s up to me. I don’t wanna deal with regrets when I’m older. I wanna do what I want now. Sometimes that’s where love starts. loving and accepting yourself.
Live life.. no regrets..
Tommy Fritts
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Common Cold
1. Where is the first character supposed to be? The first characters and all the characters are residents in a cold fictional town.
2. Is there a spiritual side about this? Yes. The town is cold because of their selfishness and they try to get warmth from blankets but it ends up not curing them, but actually making them more selfish.
3. Is it from a Bible verse? There are certain parts that were directly inspired by Luke 3:11-13, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." (the guy with a drawer full of gloves even though his neighbor has none, etc) and "Don't collect any more than you are required to" (the blanket salesmen)
4. When/where did you come up with the concept? There is a song called "A Comet Appears" by the Shins, and in that song there is a line that says "there is a numbness in your heart and it's growing", from that I started thinking about how numb we can be to loving people, sometimes we feel really compelled to love but then we bury it with something else, which makes our numbness grow. We distract ourselves from our true needs. Kind of like when we feel lonely we buy things for ourselves, instead of hanging out with people, we self-indulge, which makes us only more lonely.
5. What kind of camera did you use? I used a HVX-200, I borrowed it from The Red House arts theater, they are a Syracuse arts theater that helped me out so much with equipment.
6. Did you have help writing/brainstorming about it? Anything I write I run by friends and just telling them a verbal story helps out so much, but there are a few friends that really give some awesome advice so I call them all the time.
7. Whos' the older guy supposed to represent? The guy shoveling snow? He represents everyone's neighbor, the neighbor Jesus tells us to love. He has a need, and the first character sees that need, but decides he likes to keep his gloves for himself.
8. The guy stops when he comes out of the house, was he planning on shoveling and then saw the older guy and changed his mind? The first character leaves the house so he can meet the truck at the lot, on his way out he sees the shoveling neighbor and thinks about helping him but sees the truck and realizes that he doesn't have the time.
9. Were they expecting clothes or actually expecting blankets? They were expecting blankets. I didn't successfully establish that that box truck coming through town is a routine for them, they are used to following it to the parking lot.
10. Did they expect to pay for it? They did. If you notice the first guy that pays had money ready, but it ended up being more expensive than he was used to.
11. Is the house a metaphor/symbol for something else? The house is just a house, but in this story houses don't provide the warmth you expect from a house. Some people buy the nicest houses, with the nicest heaters and nicest carpets, but don't have any warmth in the house and it still doesn't feel like home. So in this film I wanted to show that if the cold is in their hearts, all the blankets and houses in the world won't warm them up.
12. Is the cost of comfort killing us? Sometimes, yes. Leaving a comfort zone is how you experience life. You cannot experience a roller coaster if you are too comfortable on the ground. And you won't experience the outdoors if you are too comfortable on the couch. This happens spiritually all the time, if we are too comfortable with what we know about Jesus, we don't challenge what we know to learn a bit more.
13. Do people think to much about their own comfort? I think so.
14. What are the blankets supposed to represent in the video? The blankets represent something different for each viewer. Some think they are drugs, TV, money, food and anything else. I think of them as addictions we have, they are different to each viewer. But the main point is they are just a quick distraction from their real need.
15. If we learned to show love more would the "coldness" go away? The people that don't love in real life are the ones that seem the most miserable and cold. The people that know how to love their neighbor because God, love himself is showing them, that is when you find someone with true joy.
16. How can we make the "cold" around us go away? I think we need to realize that all the blankets in our life are just distractions and turn away from them.
17. Is cold representive of Hate or loneliness in this video? I think selfishness is why we hate and hating is why we are lonely. I see hate/loneliness/selfishness in the same boat. There is a song by 4:37 called "Samuel's Son" in that song there is a line I think applies, "is it possible that loneliness is just a tomb, a symptom of our separation from you?". He is referring to separation from God. I think we all were born into a separation from God, just like cold is a just a lack of warmth, hate is a just a lack of love, the God that says 'I am love' we are separate from, we lack him, so selfishness is the lack of that love. Hate and love can't come out of the same source. If we lack true love and joy and we know it, I think it's important to face it instead of distract ourselves from that desire.
18. How long did it take to film? It took 4 days to film. The main shoot with all the extras took 12 hours in -10 degree weather, (it got colder when the sun went down).
19. How long did the whole production take? I released it one year after writing the script. I had the first draft edited within a month of the last day of shooting. It ended up taking a year because there was no budget, it literally cost me $50 bucks to make, (we had to fill the gas tank in the box truck), everything else in the film from cameras, to camera-cranes, to actors, extras and everything else were friends and family wanting to help out. Since the composer is a professional producer/sound engineer, and I couldn't pay him, he had to make the music when he wasn't working on other jobs. What also took time was that I have learned a ton about storytelling after I wrote this so I tried to fix a lot of the plot holes in the editing. I also had to color correct and other things. The composer, Elias Gwinn, finished that awesome score a long time ago, but I wanted to have real violins replace the midi/fake violin sounds, because we just had the midi violins as a temporary solution, but it got to a point where I though, "I need to release this film before it's out-dated on the things I have learned about storytelling and filmmaking". So I released it, nearly one year to the day from the first day of shooting.
20. What are the pictures near the end of the video that are covered up? The blankets on the wall arm attempts to insulate the house. In those attempts to warm things up they are separating themselves from their family photos and love. They are forgetting the memory of warmth and togetherness in attempts to warm up the house.
21. When they're covered up does it represent what we do with our loved ones sometimes, we shut them out? Yes, Exactly.
22. Do you think everyone will understand it? I don't, I think of 'The Common Cold' as a parable, Jesus told a bunch of parables and a lot of people didn't understand them, they had to ask him "what did you mean by that?". In Luke 8:9-10 The disciples asked Jesus what his parable meant and Jesus said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, " 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand." I don't want my films to be spoon fed, there have been a percentage of people that don't understand any of this film, I think there are a lot of storytelling flaws that I could have improved and it's not the best told story, but I also think that some people don't understand it because they don't try to understand it. We have stopped thinking about the things in our lives. I think everything in our lives is a lesson but we don't see the lessons sometimes, we just see it as a tree or a squirrel or a rainstorm. All of Jesus' parables might make a good story to just listen to, but then you can think about it and it means so much more, and you can keep thinking about it and the metaphors he uses just expand when you allow them to.
23. Why do you think we search for comfort in material things? Sometimes when we have certain things it makes us feel like we are doing something right. Like, "I have a nice car, I must be doing something right".
24. Where should we go for such comfort? Sometimes the most cliché answers are the right ones, this answer is no exception. Jesus Christ. If you are Christian or not, I think we need to start learning who the real Jesus Christ is, not the PG version that we have made him out to be. Knowing him for who he really is, will rock our world.
25. How do we look for it? Seek truth and you will find him. Be honest with yourself. Are you comfortable with who you see Jesus as? or are you trying to get to know who he really is?
Real Life Does Happen
I am writing this blog backstage at a concert on the Willet 2010 New Zealand Tour. As I read the purpose for “The Advocates of Love Project”, I realized that I had an opportunity to truthfully share my experience over the past week as a Christian artist. As a band, and in my life personally, I have always tried to be transparent on stage, off stage, and through our websites / social networks online. For one, as a Christian I think that we have that responsibility to be genuine, and two, I think its vital to share the “highs” and “lows” of life in community with other believers. Many fans of Christian music make the mistake of assuming artists “have it all together” just because someone straps on a guitar, sits behind a drum set, or steps on stage at a “Christian event”.
This is far from the truth.
Every tour, and specifically, every show, I do attempt to be open to God’s will for that moment, and respond as I feel His leading. Some nights, I feel as though there is a tremendous connection and it is very clear as to how God is using Willet. Other nights, I take the stage and quite honestly, am broken. I’m broken because each show for me is an emotional battle because of what Willet stands for. Getting on stage each night in a different city and sharing about poverty around the world can easily become “routine”, and in fact, last year, during our Christmas tour, I fell into a pattern when I spoke where I didn’t actually “feel” the burden anymore. I would get up and present the stories, share the statistics, and ask for people to respond. People did respond, and great things happened for children living in poverty! But, I refuse to let speaking about children in poverty come across as a “commercial” or “promotion” of some sort.
This is real life.
Because this is real life, and because poverty does kill thousands every day, I needed to make sure that it was personal again for me. On January 12th, 2010, God broke me down in a way that I wish to never experience again.
As a band, we were in New Zealand enjoying an off day with some friends we met. They invited us on a 9 hour hike on a mountain summit, and we accepted. As we were down to the last 3 hours of this journey, we received a call. It was a friend of ours back in Auckland that just heard news that a massive 7.0 earthquake had just hit Haiti, and leveled the country.
My heart sank.
My wife moved to Haiti as a full-time missionary back in November of 2009. She was living in an orphanage during the time of the earthquake.
I was helpless. I wanted to get on a plane and fly to Haiti right away to make sure she was OK, but no one could get in or out of Haiti for several days, including relief groups. For 2 1/2 days, I waited anxiously to hear if my wife had survived the earthquake. I didn’t sleep at night, had trouble eating, and tried to ask God, “Why?”. Finally, through a string of short text messages, my family back in the states heard that Kathleen and all the children survived, and were currently sleeping in tents!
The next day, we took the stage for a small festival we were headlining in Levin, New Zealand for 500 people. In the middle of our set, I shared the emotional story of the Haiti earthquake, and gave glory to God that my wife and the orphans were OK. I shared from stage that it was really difficult for me to take the stage that night knowing that my wife was surrounded by death and destruction. I expressed my feelings towards the fact that over 200,000 people were killed within hours of a natural disaster, and how I was broken. I asked people that night that if they didn’t know Jesus as their Savior, that they needed to repent and invite Jesus into their hearts.
That night, 12 people trusted Jesus as their Savior!
On this tour in New Zealand, I do not have it all together. I am broken. I am confused. I wish I could be in Haiti helping…But, God is still moving and changing lives through that brokenness. I am about to take the stage in front of several hundred people tonight. I will do the same tomorrow night. In a few days, I’ll get on stage at Parachute Festival with Switchfoot, Underoath, and Leeland in front of thousands of people. Each night will be an incredible opportunity to share about Jesus, and what He has and is doing in the lives of people around the world. God can use our brokenness for good. He is sovereign and He is listening to our every cry for help.
Many of the Haitians following the earthquake said it was as if, “Hell came up”. Our response to their situation will determine whether or not they feel “Heaven came down”.
If you don’t know Jesus, put your trust in Him.
- Jeremy Willet (lead singer for Willet, co-author of carried.)
This is far from the truth.
Every tour, and specifically, every show, I do attempt to be open to God’s will for that moment, and respond as I feel His leading. Some nights, I feel as though there is a tremendous connection and it is very clear as to how God is using Willet. Other nights, I take the stage and quite honestly, am broken. I’m broken because each show for me is an emotional battle because of what Willet stands for. Getting on stage each night in a different city and sharing about poverty around the world can easily become “routine”, and in fact, last year, during our Christmas tour, I fell into a pattern when I spoke where I didn’t actually “feel” the burden anymore. I would get up and present the stories, share the statistics, and ask for people to respond. People did respond, and great things happened for children living in poverty! But, I refuse to let speaking about children in poverty come across as a “commercial” or “promotion” of some sort.
This is real life.
Because this is real life, and because poverty does kill thousands every day, I needed to make sure that it was personal again for me. On January 12th, 2010, God broke me down in a way that I wish to never experience again.
As a band, we were in New Zealand enjoying an off day with some friends we met. They invited us on a 9 hour hike on a mountain summit, and we accepted. As we were down to the last 3 hours of this journey, we received a call. It was a friend of ours back in Auckland that just heard news that a massive 7.0 earthquake had just hit Haiti, and leveled the country.
My heart sank.
My wife moved to Haiti as a full-time missionary back in November of 2009. She was living in an orphanage during the time of the earthquake.
I was helpless. I wanted to get on a plane and fly to Haiti right away to make sure she was OK, but no one could get in or out of Haiti for several days, including relief groups. For 2 1/2 days, I waited anxiously to hear if my wife had survived the earthquake. I didn’t sleep at night, had trouble eating, and tried to ask God, “Why?”. Finally, through a string of short text messages, my family back in the states heard that Kathleen and all the children survived, and were currently sleeping in tents!
The next day, we took the stage for a small festival we were headlining in Levin, New Zealand for 500 people. In the middle of our set, I shared the emotional story of the Haiti earthquake, and gave glory to God that my wife and the orphans were OK. I shared from stage that it was really difficult for me to take the stage that night knowing that my wife was surrounded by death and destruction. I expressed my feelings towards the fact that over 200,000 people were killed within hours of a natural disaster, and how I was broken. I asked people that night that if they didn’t know Jesus as their Savior, that they needed to repent and invite Jesus into their hearts.
That night, 12 people trusted Jesus as their Savior!
On this tour in New Zealand, I do not have it all together. I am broken. I am confused. I wish I could be in Haiti helping…But, God is still moving and changing lives through that brokenness. I am about to take the stage in front of several hundred people tonight. I will do the same tomorrow night. In a few days, I’ll get on stage at Parachute Festival with Switchfoot, Underoath, and Leeland in front of thousands of people. Each night will be an incredible opportunity to share about Jesus, and what He has and is doing in the lives of people around the world. God can use our brokenness for good. He is sovereign and He is listening to our every cry for help.
Many of the Haitians following the earthquake said it was as if, “Hell came up”. Our response to their situation will determine whether or not they feel “Heaven came down”.
If you don’t know Jesus, put your trust in Him.
- Jeremy Willet (lead singer for Willet, co-author of carried.)
Friday, January 15, 2010
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