Daylight Come

I saw these amazing banana cases at Tokyu Hands, (which just happens to be the world's greatest department store, ever) and promptly channeled my inner hoarder by buying them out of stock.  Just kidding.  I only dreamed about buying them out of stock, but then I would have had to explain an entire bag of multi-colored banana holders at customs and believe me, they'd already had their fill of me and my 'stuff'.
 
However, the banana case has come to represent all the qualities of the perfect gift:  completely unexpected, useful, peculiar, and well-made.  A good gift need not be expensive, or difficult to find.  It shouldn't be stuffy, or take itself too seriously.  But it does need to have style, and a strong sense of self.  A good gift should be stumbled upon, and, once discovered, it should consume the purchaser to the point of distraction.  Missing out on the opportunity to give this item to a particular person would be such a dramatic misstep that the giver has no choice but to buy it.  Immediately.  And a good gift demands to be enjoyed right away, regardless of whether or not there is an occasion for giving.

A side note: These rules can also be applied to perfect dates, friendships, and meals.

Lessons Learned

I've been sitting around over-thinking things, unable to actually post because my brain is too full of thoughts for any real action to settle in.  Last night I worked myself up into a bit of a creative straightjacket, and was *thisclose* to just giving up on writing entirely.  I went to bed feeling completely fed up and stymied.  And then I woke up to this text:

For all my creative friends:  "Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion.  You must first set yourself on fire" -Fred Shero

Sometimes the world just needs to smack you upside the head in order to get you thinking straight.

I'm so grateful to know people who can simply intuit when a life lesson is needed.  I'm so ready to set myself aflame.

#11:  Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it.  If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you'll never share it with anyone.

Emma Coats, a storyboard artist for Pixar, has been compiling a series of tweets that serve as style guidelines.  They are listed on this site under the name "Pixar story rules (one version)".  I will probably have them all tattooed on my forearm for easy reference.

 I was wandering through the streets of the internet when I came across a teaser for the above blog post.  I'm always looking for motivation to stay consistent with my writing, and so any kind of structured framework grabs my attention.  Will it work?  Usually only until the novelty wears off.  But when I read through this list of 'rules', I kept thinking about how well they applied to life in general.  With a little fine tuning, these storyboard guidelines read as a style guide for living.  Some are a bit redundant, but others inadvertently jump out and shake loose the fundamental lessons they were meant to impart.  In so doing, they reveal a glimpse of the greater conversation between creation and action. 

 

MIssed Connections

Everyone has something they thought they would be by this stage in their lives, and I'm guessing a great many of those people aren't quite there yet.  Any number of (best-selling) inspirational, motivational, or self-help guides will try to instill in you the importance of recognizing what you really want and changing the course of your life in order to get back on that original track.  And I do support this kind of thinking to a certain extent.  However, my issue with these messages is the belief that one should make definite and goal-oriented decisions regarding one's entire life journey.  (And believe me, I work much better under specific goals and deadlines, so I understand the allure of a definite and goal-oriented path!)  It's just hard to understand sometimes how we're supposed to pick which one of the available life tracks we should actually take.  

There are so many.  On any given day, there are a billion lives I wish I was leading.  More often than not, those lives intersect and run course along with the one I'm currently cultivating.  Yet, there is always an additional fantasy.  There will always be adjustments, and mistakes, and missteps, and unexpected surprises.  There will always be the opportunity to discover, and the chance of complete failure.  Choosing one particular path, one deep set goal, means losing out on the potential for growth, experience, laughter, engagement, or disappointment.  Does that seem a bit too shallow?  I don't mean that I wish I could do it all, without ever having to make a commitment.  There are so many choices I have made, so many definitive paths that I have chosen above all others, that define me.  These choices make up the foundation for the life I live, and bring me the greatest pleasure I could ever seek.  

No, I'm not talking about a lack of commitment.  Mostly, I'm talking about looking at the picture as a living whole.  Determining which direction you are headed, and aiming to reach there when you can.  It's a lot like parenting.  We don't get to choose the personality of the little ones that enter our lives, but we do get to help them wade their way through the world.  Sometimes this looks easy, and sometimes it is.  Usually, it is messy, and disorganized, and covered in a kind of beautiful chaos.  I'm hoping that in the long run, it's the chaos that I'll look back on as means of understanding how I was able to make it where I needed to go.

From the Soapbox

Okay, so I don't intend for this blog to get preachy, but..well, today I just have to.  I'll promise to try to keep this as a leap-year tradition, which means that in four years when Obj. #4 rolls her eyes and says, "what the hell is a blog?!" I will unleash my inner Sean Penn.  And then I will wash her mouth out with soap.  For now, I'm just going to dip my toe in the pool.

The first time I heard that The Lorax was going to be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster, I was peeved.  Then came the cast of vocal talent:  Taylor Swift, Zac Efron, and somebody-famous-but-I'm-not-even-listening-anymore-because-the-disappointment-is-starting-to-eat-away-at-my-eyeballs-DeVito.  But what finally broke me was the onslaught of absurd endorsements for products that are completely at odds to the message of the original book.

 And I love this book.  I mean, I know the darn thing by heart.  I started reading it to Obj. #4 before she was old enough to understand what a tree was, let alone have the ability to empathize with those poor, miserable Barbaloots and their sad little tummies.  I spent my childhood scratching out all the "euss'" and replacing them with "usan's" just so I could claim to have written such masterpieces.  These are the defining texts of my childhood.  

So I'm 100% in support of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and their fight against this shameless commercialism.  Like I said, I'm not usually into cramming my opinions down the throat of anyone not related to me by blood.  And there's a lot of messages aired by CCFC that I don't particularly endorse. But I can get behind this one, and it feels like an important one to pass on.  

Plus, anything that gets Stephen Colbert to speak in verse is worth a second glance.