A very good Friday
Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
Death is strong, but Life is stronger;
Stronger than the dark, the light;
Stronger than the wrong, the right…
~Phillips Brooks,
“An Easter Carol
Archive: March 29, 2013
To be read, carefully
Have you ever picked up a book that you knew was going to flatten you emotionally and yet you read it anyway? Willingly?
I know a great many people read to escape so why, therefore, would I want to read something that will have me ripping Kleenexes out the box and wishing the planet wasn’t such a broken place? I can only say sometimes I read to reflect and ponder, and that it’s good to be reminded that when love takes us to the crucible we re-learn how much love defines us not how hot the fire was.
I am adding “The Still Point of the Turning World,” to my To Be Read stack even though I know it’s the heart-wrenching memoir of a young mother who lost her precious little boy to Tay-Sachs disease, a rare and congenital condition that is always fatal. As in, always. Children with Tay-Sachs lack an enzyme responsible for breaking down specific chemicals in the nerve cells of the brain. When these chemicals aren’t removed,”they build up, and the child loses his or her ability to function. Seizures and loss of sight and movement are all symptoms of the child’s body shutting down.”
I read this excerpt, which just about tore me in two, and that actually clinched it for me. I have to read the rest. I have to know what it was like for this mother to walk that road and come out on the other side, even if I would approach the same quest from a different faith. I believe those I love and who love God like I do will be forever with me in heaven. Could I survive an ordeal like this one if I didn’t? I’m thinking no. . .
In this interview, author Emily Rapp says: “One of the things about having a terminally ill child is that you start to understand and really absorb your own mortality and the mortality of every single person that you love, and that is really terrifying, but it’s the truth.” Elsewhere in the interview she shares that there is no afterlife in her worldview. How does she cope? I have to know.
Life is as fragile as it is precious. Just reminding myself of this as a I write this makes me want to toss out every little inconvenience I am currently whining about and hug my four adult children. I admit I am a little afraid of that “still point” in the turning world that is the risk of loving people. But love is still worth the risk, don’t you think?
I still love paper
When I saw this awesome classic typewriter and iPad combo on Etsy this week, I bypassed simple desire and went straight to frantic yearning. So cool, so chic, so I-want
-it! (Does the carriage send your iPad back and forth? someone asked me, when I made my craving known? I don’t know I said, but it was fun to picture. Ding!). I don’t have an iPad (darn) and I can’t really see dropping $800 to make my $500 iPad look like it’s a $150 typewriter, but hey, a girl can dream.
But then I saw this video, not even 24 hours after coveting the iTypewriter and I just had to laugh. Paper is still king…
Five million books have a lot to say
I came across this TED talk while looking for something else, and because it had “Books” in the title, I had to stop and watch it, even though it’s over a year old. So very entertaining, my dear reading friends. As an author who needs to make a living selling her books not giving them away for free, I’m not terribly keen on Google digitizing every book I’ve written and offering it for the nice price of, ahem, nothing, but I do like the idea of Google internalizing the billions of words we have authors have offered the world and building, for lack of a better word, a brain for them to be accessed. In other words, don’t put out the whole book if the author is still living, but do show us the impact those authors have had on culture. If you don’t know what an n-gram, I think you will find this TED talk interesting. And if you need a laugh today, these guys have a lot of great lines. I love to learn something while being entertained. Don’t you? Watch and tell me what YOU think of n-grams.
How authors see themselves
I have said on this blog in times past that I am only an artist of the written word. I can’t draw, paint, sculpt, or manufacture anything meaningful from these hands of mine. I admire writers who are also artists for this reason so naturally I was drawn to this blog post detailing the self-portraits of twenty famous authors.
I picked a few favorites to highlight here but you will want to check out the full gallery yourself. And of course I did attempt one of my own. Seems only right that I should.
Got a favorite? Do tell…
Charles Bukowski. I’m afraid I had to look this one up. I didn’t know his name on sight (although I do love his sketch and those cute little dogs at his feet). Prof. Google told me Henry Charles Bukowski was a German-born American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles.
Who doesn’t love Flannery O’Connor? And to paint her self-portrait with an American Gothic-esque vibe (love the pheasant – that IS a pheasant, isn’t it?) is so creative. When I read her stuff I want to be a better writer.
Edgar Allen Poe excelled in all things troubled, creepy and macabre. Pretty good self-portrait, eh?
dear e.e. cummings, whose work I love, was obviously very much at home with paintbrushes and a canvas. well done, o talented one.
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I spent all of five seconds on this. If I had spent five days on it, it would be far worse, I assure you. I think I will stick to the day job…