FORGIVENESS...

Dear Reader,

Before the recent screening of THE SANDLOT at AutoZone Park in Memphis, my friend Jim Walker asked me to speak to a group of young men at PBS (Presbyterian Day School) about where the idea for the story of the movie came from.  Here's Jim's publisher's letter from his upcoming issue of 4Memphis magazine:

Here's the text:

Forgiveness: A Tool To Rewriting

History Or The Future?

I imagine we have all heard more than once someone making the

statement: “I could never forgive that person.” Even if we have not said

it, if we are truthful, we have thought it. Unfortunately many of us live

our lives under the umbrella of anger because of some condition or

memory of our past.

Last month we announced that 4Memphis was bringing David Mickey

Evans the writer/director/voice of “The Sandlot” to AutoZone Park for a

special screening of the film on the Jumbotron. The Sandlot’s positive

messages about friendship, acceptance and childhood innocence, are

now speaking to their second generation of fans. It was fun to watch

fathers and mothers bring their children to AutoZone Park to share together

this special showing of their beloved movie. 

The parents had watched this movie as children many times, but now for the first time

they heard the voice of “The Sandlot” answer important questions i.e.

why he wrote the movie and where the characters we all love came

from. David Mickey Evans was quick to quote Mark Twain in explaining

the characters, saying “None of these boys was any boy I knew, but all

of these boys was every boy I knew.” In fact the boys of his childhood

could not have been more opposite than our friends in “The Sandlot.”

David Mickey Evans shared with the crowd his childhood, growing up

in a poor, multicultural section of Los Angeles. It was a neighborhood

where baseball, football and basketball were played seasonally by the

kids on the street. The other game these neighborhood boys played was

to bully the two boys that didn’t look like them. Evans and his brother

lived daily with emotional harassment and occasionally physical abuse

by the kids of the street. The fun of the neighborhood pick up game

was not theirs to enjoy; it was something to be feared as their childhood

tormentors were all gathered in one place.

The vicious dog in “The Sandlot,” Hercules, and the challenge to retrieve

a ball from over the fence were real, but the conditions in which Evans’

brother had to retrieve the ball were much different. Evans’ brother was

offered the long-awaited opportunity to be a part of the street baseball

game, if only he would retrieve the ball that had been knocked over the

fence. In the end, Evans had to carry his brother home, having been

badly bitten on the leg by Hercules as he attempted to get the ball.

Evans childhood and early adult life were filled with anger and hatred

for the boys of his neighborhood. He

was driven to be successful by his desire

to seek revenge on the boys of his

youth. Like many of us, Evans felt if he

made enough money or had enough

power he could somehow punish the

boys of his neighborhood, even if that

punishment was to only show them

how wrong they had been for not being

his friend. His anger and drive to

be successful did not serve him well

as an adult. He was only allowing the

abuse that had destroyed his childhood to destroy his current life was

well.

In his late twenties, Evans surrendered his anger and decided that he

had to forgive the boys of his youth. He decided to go back in time and

rewrite his childhood and in doing so he would forgive those who had

hurt him and his brother. “The Sandlot” was born. He wrote the kids as

friends and heroes, playing together and overcoming a great obstacle.

He knows nothing of what happened to the boys of his youth. They

didn’t ask for forgiveness. They never sought his friendship. However, in

Evans’ process of forgiveness, he allowed these bullies to become his

friends, and this personal story he wrote for himself has become one

the most loved and watched movies of all time.

He and I discussed in detail his personal journey, and he would tell you

that although he would not wish his childhood on anyone, if he had the

actual ability to go back in time to change it, he would not. It made him

who he is and allowed him to give the world “The Sandlot.” Much like

the Old Testament’s character of Joseph, who was sold into slavery by

his brothers, Evans is able to declare, “What they meant for evil, God

has used for good.”

Forgiveness, the key to Evans’ and Joseph’s success is also the key to

success for the citizens of Memphis. Forgiveness didn’t really change

Evans’ past, it changed the way he dealt with the present, and that

changed his future. The citizens of Memphis shouldn’t forget the past,

but instead should work to forgive the wrongs of the past. Forgiveness

will allow us to live in the present and build for the future.

Jim Walker

Letter From the Publisher

Seek the Peace and Prosperity of the City in which I have placed you.

Jeremiah 29:7

14 / 4Memphis

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Best,

DME