A Welcome Stranger in the Woods

What will inspire you in 2012? Notice...I say 'will.' Are you thinking ahead, standing still or living in the moment like me? I like to live my life in minutes and hours, but sometimes even I have to plan ahead, pack a bag, take a leap and prepare for what's to come.

I've been told writing is like driving in a snowstorm. Sometimes you can only see as far as your headlights will allow. But more often, we can see inklings beyond the headlight's rays, and that is what we are called to do.

If I were to hold up the mirror to myself as a writer, I'd have to say, I've been forging ahead and standing still at the same time. Writing requires a deep well of unrelenting thought. Characters have to be wrestled to the floor, shook out and torn apart almost until they bleed. Sounds graphic and torturous, right? Well...the process itself is. I am haunted and enthused, delighted and annoyed and most often plagued by that awful gnawing doubt that keeps me paralyzed in procrastination, stuck in the quicksand of thought.

Right now, I'm forging ahead. I'm inspired because I've forced myself to revisit and remap my characters' goals, motivations and desires. Instead of writing into a snowstorm, tangible images and ideas have begun to emerge again. And unlike this beautiful stranger in the woods, the patterns and ideas are no longer a big surprise to me. So, just for today, I'm grabbing on...and letting that little bit of inspiration carry me!

The Curious Case of a Wonderful Movie

Curiously Wonderful!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button deserves everything it's nominated for and more. It's a terrific story, which unfolds through the eyes of a wonderful character: Benjamin. Benjamin is somewhat reminiscent in a way of Owen Meany. (A much nicer version...very wistful and full of appreciation of life and people.) It actually has that southern feel of Fried Green Tomatoes too."You're odd," says Daisy. You bet he is. But it's the odd and irregular that we long for in great story. I love great writing. And what could be better than a deathbed revelation told through the words and vignettes found in a journal of a missing person. Benjamin Button is an anomaly from birth. He is born old, and lives his life in reverse, becoming younger each day. Kate Blanchett (Daisy) is the beautiful childhood friend, who becomes his love and soulmate over the course of their parallel lives.  Each night, whether near or far, they wish a soft good night to one another. Yet beyond this unfolding tale lurks death and Hurricane Katrina, both knocking all the while from the outer realm of time. This story is framed as a reminiscence and we begin with a huge clock set in 1918 in a train station somewhere in New Orleans. The clock's minute hand spins backward, and so does this tale. I fell in love with F. Scott Fitzgerald and the whole notion of writing in my own college days. But I'd never read this short story. The screenplay was so well done that my 'Doubting Thomas' sat there silently for once and even cried at the end right alongside me. Which in itself is a miracle! This movie crosses not only racial barriers, but age barriers, handicapping barriers and barriers of culture. My cup is full Benjamin. I hope you clean up! (Did somebody forget to nominate Kate?)