The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Thornton Wilder's "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" is a favorite book. It so closely aligns with a story I covered years ago near Washington, D.C. that it gave me a measure of peace just knowing my response to an amazingly unfortunate confluence of events was not unique. More on that story another time. I put together this short Instagram creation on my iPhone in a coffee shop using the Adobe Rush app utilizing a couple of quotes from the novel and imagining what the fictional scene could look like. Music was pulled from Artlist, image creation and video from Runway.

Wilder writes, "there are a hundred ways to wonder at circumstance." True. The most beautiful events and the most tragic events often have elements that make us as humans wonder if they occurred by accident or by some kind of cosmic intention. My experience tells me that there's value in pursuing answers to such questions and - at the same time - it's unlikely I'll find the entire answer. Search with all your might... yet know a sufficient answer will likely elude you.

On a purely creative level, I wasn't altogether happy with this snippet. I didn't capture what I'd hoped. It feels too "Lord of the Rings"... that's fine if that's what you meant to create. But it led me to another conclusion - The Bridge of San Luis Rey needs a modern re-telling... teens on a bridge in New York maybe. The themes of the book will never grow old but the characters, place and time are not relatable. Which leads me back to the story I reported which was so similar... it involved real people in real life, and as such, would need to be treated with extreme care if the loved one's families wanted the story re-told at all. Mulling this and the proper approach.