Michael J. Corgnati
It seems that I must have missed it. Did they declare it on the day I had surgery on my knee and was so out of it that I did not read the paper or hear the news? Maybe it was when I was editing a project and was in the studio and did not come out for two days. I am not sure but I am sure of one thing….I missed it.
It should be mandatory that if you are going to change something so fundamental as this, there ought to be a major press conference with celebrities and/ or athletes, since we always listen to what they have to say.
Stories about GOOD don’t sell, that is what I kept hearing. The news covers murders, robberies and anything where one or more persons have done something BAD to another.
Meanwhile I was helping a wonderful woman named Marlene T. Elias who was a close friend of Mother Teresa. Marlene’s husband had passed away and she needed some help and I needed some extra credit with God, so it seems this was a working relationship inspired by Mother herself.
I thought it would be easy after the first time I saw Marlene do her inspirational tribute to Mother Teresa. I was up on stage helping with the music, without a handkerchief, and it was all I could do to keep my composure. I looked out into the audience and saw tears running down the faces of 85% of the four hundred people in the audience. I was not prepared for the message or the reaction. People stood in line afterwards for 90 minutes to hug Marlene and pray with her and once again they wept unashamedly. I remember thinking, this is something special.
During the tribute Marlene told stories, showed slides and sang some truly beautiful songs inspired by Mother Teresa.
I figured this would be a wonderful opportunity for me to do some real GOOD. I could help Marlene by producing the events and the people attending would have a truly inspirational experience. Following the third event I began to make suggestions to Marlene on how I thought she could make it better. She trusted me when I told her that she should share some gut wrenching events which she had endured and how Mother helped her through them. This showed Marlene was now not just a friend of Mother, talking about her, she was a normal person with everyday problems, sharing Mother’s wisdom to help her through them.
I was now ready to begin to kick this into high gear….it was during this time when I realized that GOOD WAS BAD.
I was informed that people didn’t want to hear about GOOD things happening they only wanted to hear the BAD. So BAD became GOOD because it sold magazines, got TV ratings and sold tickets to movies.
My talking was falling on deaf ears…….I talked and talked but there weren’t a lot of results to help Marlene. I took a step back and said OK I will hit the Catholic churches…Mother Teresa was going to be a saint in the Catholic Church they would surely want to hear about her. I was wrong again. Some of them were either too busy or not interested in even speaking to me about doing a FREE tribute to Mother Teresa.
The next problem is how do we make people aware of something GOOD with no money. There is always plenty of money to sell something that is BAD but no money for something GOOD. I remember when Mel Gibson was trying to get “The Passion of Christ” financed and distributed. There was no money because this was GOOD.
He was forced to put up his own money. Mel then began to try to find a distributor for the film…….finally he did and it has made over $400 Million.
Since Marlene and I do not have money like Mel Gibson we will just keep working to change things so that GOOD IS GOOD again.
I promise to let all of you know when it happens, so you won’t miss it like I did…………when GOOD BECAME BAD.
In the event you get to see Marlene do her tribute to Mother Teresa you will know how really GOOD …..GOOD CAN BE.