Remember this dialogue from City Slickers (1991), where Mitch (Billy Crystal) talks to the crusty lunatic cowboy, Curly (Jack Palance)?

Beside a campfire, Mitch sits uncomfortably, with Curly:

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?

[holds up one finger]

Curly: This.

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean &%*@!

Mitch: But, what is the “one thing?”

Curly: [smiles] That’s what *you* have to find out.

This past weekend my mom, my sister Darby and I went to Birmingham’s Sidewalk Film Festival – one of the best in the nation!We came to promote our film, Our BackPack, but also to support the array of talented people who have put together over 266 films.  When they hit the mother lode, and I believe some of them will, the Press will call them “overnight successes,” or “surprising new finds.”  But I assure you, from one who has worked hard for several years, to produce a TV show and movie, nothing about success happens overnight!

The people at the festival have full-time jobs outside their fields of interest, (gotta eat?!) like Alabama local, George Hardy. That’s Dr. Hardy to you. George, a successful Alexander City dentist, has the lead role in the entertaining and well directed short called Texas Cotton the Movie. When he, along with the other fellow Sidewalk Festival participants, leave home each day,  they park their passion just inside the front door to greet them when they get home each night.  These people have an abundance of talent.  But is talent enough?

Curly was right; “the secret to life is ‘One Thing.’   Stick to that and the rest don’t mean %*&@!”

Putting that one thing ahead of everything else, requires sacrifice!  Lots of midnight oil, lots of thinking, planning, a few little successes, a whole lot of failures and the willingness to tear up your perfect plan A and try to find a new approach to the One Thing.

Darby, my mom and I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the Sidewalk Film Festival, joining our “comrades in arms,” like George, encouraging them, applauding their efforts and celebrating the little victories.

What is that “One Thing” in your life?  As Curly says with a smile:   “that is what you have to find out.”

Check out our Websites: Ourbackpack.com, Ryanshines.com, Ourboysintheworld.com. and you can catch a preview of our shows on YouTube under ‘dawn hirn.’

Have a great weekend!

Dawn