SO WHAT COULD THIS POSSIBLY HAVE TO DO WITH A SCRIPT CONSULTATION?
By Craig Kellem

I hired a couple of local gents a while back to help clean around a duct that's
been blocked up on our property. We have a small stream which is nice but this
blockage is the part that's not so nice.

Don't ask what a pain in the butt this whole deal had been, mostly because the
state hasn't done their duty in keeping the duct clean and clear from the dirt
and sand that's used on our road, during the winter and runs off you know where
(ie: our place) in the spring.

So I anxiously awaited their arrival.

So who's John M? He's the only guy I know who seems to drive around in his own
back hoe as if it were a Corvette or something. He's also the guy who found our
well via dowsing when we first moved in. Was that ever a sight! I discovered
long ago that this is one smart and crafty hombre. And he's also colorful as
hell. Usually comes bare-chested, straggly beard, adorned by his lucky hat
(don't ask!) and sports a wonderful and always elusive shit-eating grin. He came
with his associate (and boss) Morty who's actually quite a player around here.
Although they share the boss and employee titles, they rag on each other all day
like brothers. Morty told me with a twinkle in his eye that it makes him sick to
sign John's paycheck so he asks his wife to do it, and then steps outside so he
doesn't have to watch.

We discussed all of the various strategies for the task at hand which now had
other annoying issues as a result of the excessive water that had built up.
Facing it was worse than having to write a synopsis, if you know what I mean.

The date was set to make it all happen.

So I waited and waited.

Old city habits die hard, folks. But, round here, people show up when they're
good and ready. This goes double for these guys. Fact is, you wait for them just
like you would for big time heart surgeons.

The big day finally arrived. There was the big mama backhoe-so majestic that it
required the services of a flatbed truck to usher it in. My dog hated the sound
of it. But for me it was like hearing good music.

I wanted this fixed and now.

The guys went to work and just as I predicted, a few scoops of the dirt and sand
around the duct did wonders.

Progress made, but there was a glitch.

Yes, some of the water flowed through the duct, but not with the cheerful
velocity of the past. I won't bore you with the details. But things were not as
perfect as I had hoped.

At this point, most practitioners of these services would have been close to
saying adios. After all, they did what I had asked, accomplished a reasonable
amount, and were not getting bonus money for having to hang around a worried,
irritating proprietor, namely me.

But not these guys. They figured there must be an extra blockage under the
street and started to formulate a plan. Long story short, they came back with a
jerry-rigged kind of reeming-type pole that they then managed to connect the
long way and then started to do a nasty exploration. It should be noted that
from all the mud and junk they were accumulating, they were also beginning to
resemble coal
miners.

It took time. Often felt hopeless. Where did they get the stamina? Why didn't
they just take off and end the ordeal I wondered?

But boy was it fun when things really started to happen. Hunks of dirt began
coming out of the other end. Mr Clean would have been proud. And then the water
started to flow. What a pleasant sight!

While doing all of this, these two angels with world class bum-crack insulted
each other cheerfully, told corny jokes, were patient with me and got into
contorted positions only obsessed archaeologists would allow themselves to
assume.

So you ask, what does this have to do with writing scripts and consulting on
them?

Everything!

These men offered an inspiring and lasting model for what writers can do if we
are truly willing to dig in deep, give a thousand percent and allow ourselves to
get down and dirty. Work ethic and commitment go a long way, folks.

And I have the same lesson to learn from them as a consultant. These guys came
because this is how they earn their living, but they offered so much more in
their generous and thorough responsiveness and went way beyond the call of duty
in doing all they could to make what seemed so hard and impossible, possible. I
marveled at their willingness to get dug in and how no step was left untried.
Indeed, they worked on my problem the way they would have worked on their own.
There definitely was a refreshing element of love and service behind all their
extraordinary efforts. I appreciated it so much. Their enlightened beingness,
made my day, fixed the problem and cast a little extra needed light on the
world.

It's taken me years to grasp this concept in my professional life and I try very
hard to act out of similar motives every day. So when I experienced this from
others, it only reinforced my coveted discovery and belief that this is the best
and only way to go when doing business-- namely giving, caring, completing.

Old fashioned values.

Thing of it is, it took me years to learn to do it. Seems like these guys just
did it naturally.

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