The Story Behind the Story, part 2: IMAGINATION, INSPIRATION, RECEPTIVITY & SERENDIPITY.

SERENDIPITY--Lady Luck or Still Small Voice?

When an inane idea wends its way out of the murky recesses of your mind, what do you do with it? Laugh and dismiss it? Shake your head in dismay? Tell someone? Write it down? Too kooky for words...sez you, or sez who?--  too often, there's someone ELSE'S voice in our head, a critical relative/friend/teacher/tormentor, who delights in shooting holes in any and all ideas.

When someone says, "Oh, I don't have any imagination," I argue: I think it's an affront to yourself and your Maker to claim zero imagination!

"Sure you do! You just have been on the receiving end of the squelch button too many times, and now you've given up on creativity...or, you've learned, over the years, to squelch for yourself all those fun ideas that have wahoo-wide boundaries!"

Ideas for stories? Endless. Ability to sit me down and construct something out of that first flicker of an idea? Oof...that's why writing and the other creative pursuits require hard work and perseverance.

Okay, back to the story behind the story...after I wrote about the sloths of Christmas, another little nudge landed, on the same tender rib--HEY! WRITE ABOUT ANOTHER ANIMAL IN THE NATIVITY STORY!

Some nudges in the ribcage are all-caps, bold. Some nudges come with barely a size-5 font whisper. And some nudges are only perceived during times of meditation and prayer.

Others occur at very busy times and must be heeded immediately........

Oops! Buh-bye, gotta write!

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"Imagination: the unsupervised mind at play."

DLS, 2013

The Story Behind the Story, part 1: INSPIRATION--DON'T SQUELCH IT.

     Once upon a time, there were grandchildren, young and innocent. Their exposure to books--sweeping; to television--sparse.

     They were invited to be part of the Christmas pageant at church.

     "What animals would you like to be?" they were asked.

     Being well-read youngsters, they instantly replied, "Sloths!"

     Now, I don't know what the pageant director's response was--but I think the reply would reflect a great deal about the character of the adult, don't you?

     How badly we all need what I like to call the "edit function," where there's a little pause for rumination before blurting out, "Sloths weren't there. I need sheep and goats, or you could be a donkey," ...squelching the child's delightfully-imagined attendees at Christ's Nativity!

     How much better to say, "[Pause...hmm, why not?] Great idea! I bet this will be the best Christmas pageant ever, since no one has ever had the sloth family come visit the baby Jesus!"

     Now, I'll bet we've all been on the receiving end of the "skwellllchhh"...and, sadly, we've probably all been on the giving end, too. Alas. Let's vow to not stomp someone else's notions just cuz theirs don't conform to our own, preconceived answers! Oh, and, by the way--Thou Shalt Not Squelch Thyself! I think we're our own worst enemy when comes to stomping out our own eccentricities, non-conformities, and other CREATIVE answers!

     Back to the story behind the story--it was this little incident that gave birth to the first story I wrote for THE ANIMALS OF CHRISTMAS. The Sloths of Christmas were out in the boonies where the angels were announcing the birth of the baby Jesus. After hearing that wonderful new, the sloths just had to go to Bethlehem, but, being sloths, well...they met up with some difficulties along the way.

     What inspired the other stories? The sloths, of course! Frankly, the other animals just wandered on-stage and ker-plunked into place: camels, mourning doves, dogs, goats, and mice. Where would they have been w/o the germ of that idea, that little anecdote? Unborn. Squelched--an idea that never saw the light, the tragedy of an untold good story! Glad that I noticed that quiet little nudge of the Spirit.

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     Thou Shalt Not Squelch Thyself. Or anyone else.

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(Earlier blog posts may be accessed by clicking on the right-hand column...you may need to scroll down a bit. )

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
― Plutarch

"But, once kindled, it must continue to be fueled."

― DLS

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I have to agree strongly with one of my favorite writers, that refueling at the "glass teat" is not nourishing. And if Stephen King sez it...

He says to unplug your television, or for even more fun, take a hammer to it!

Now, I know you're already rushing to defend this channel or that program...but the point is, reading is generally more stretching to the mind than is mere watching. Reading involves many more brain circuits, as you need to generate the images and sounds (and other senses) awl by youw're wittle wonesome sewlf...without a director/producer/etc deciding exactly what you will see or hear. And, and what you won't!

Really, I don't hate everything about TV, but I do lament that the AVERAGE American household consumes some 30 hours of programming per week....and, how much of that do you think is fuel for the mind? Just put your best guess in the comments section below! 

I've yet to hear a writer or visual artist say, "Yes, this work was inspired by xyz-program."

What does inspire this writer? Other books, to be sure. Talking with real, live people who dialogue with me, people whose warts and witticisms are obvious and occurring live, in real-time...ahem, just as are mine!

What else inspires me? Music! Outdoors! Vistas. Did I mention books? More books. Magazines. Kids of all ages. Museums. A sense of the divine.

What inspires you, keeps your fires well-fueled?



Inspiration, Recognition, and the Proper Use of the Club.

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
Jack London

Dear Jack,

You took me to new places, places that I saw through different eyes. I felt brave, daring, adventurous. In short, you inspired me.

Odd, that--I wasn't out hunting with a club...your stories rather clubbed me, in fact. Same for the inspiration to write my own book of animal stories. (Next to yours, mine are tame, but to compare our writings isn't why I'm writing to you today.) No, the inspiration came to me, as most ideas do, a little eddy current that swirled amid the mild hurly-burly of ordinary, non-linear-thinking life.

So, I am writing because I mostly disagree with you--I think inspiration often ambles on by, unremarked and unremembered. However, those who are aware, who are thinking, who are using their senses for more than just animal-level pleasures or survival, for them the inspiration is seen/heard/felt/grabbed/tamed/used....or, in your terminology--the inspiration was out there, and I grabbed it, clubbed it into submission, and brung that sucker home.

Hmmm, I guess, after all that, we are in complete agreement.

Happy clubbing,

David

Carrying the Torch.

Most everybody has heard that little saying by William Purkey,

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”

 

 

But do we live that out? Or, is it even possible to live like that? Guess we'll never know unless we try, eh?

 

While we all need regular doses of encouragement and re-encouragement and re-re-.... I think it helps us when we try to visualize our personal heroes and imitate them. For me, people like my mom and dad, Pastor Bob Frederich, Morine Cheney, Pastor Kori Hagen, Pastor Arlo Janssen, Pastor John Lindsay, and my daughter Carrie are inspirations. When I conjure up their faces, I want to bear the banner, carry the torch that these people have or are still carrying, and point my body/mind/heart/soul/strength at bringing glory to the most high God...and, if may I ask...may I have the next dance?

 

King David's wife, Michal, scorned him for dancing like nobody was watching. He didn't care and he didn't stop and neither will I! Join in the dance, the song, the loving and the living, for heaven's sake!

 

 

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Look to the Lord and His strength, seek His face at all times.

Psalm 105:4.

 

Folly delights a man who lacks judgment, but a man of understanding keeps a straight course.

Prov. 15: 21.