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Working it out on the page

I just read an excellent book by Darin Strauss called "Half a Life." The author discusses an accident he had half his life ago while driving, when he hit a sixteen year old girl on a bike who suddenly crossed from three lanes over into his car's path. He was eighteen at the time. It's a courageous, honest, and generous review of what he has gone through, and how he has lived life as this tragedy hovered over him through the years.

It's Kind of a Funny Story

Speaking of movies, I recommend "It's Kind of Funny Story." It's about an adolescent who walks into a hospital ER feeling suicidal. He gets admitted to the adult psych unit. Over five days, the movie tracks his life in the ward and his interactions with his fellow patients. I liked it because the progress he makes, the lessons learned, are slow and quiet and genuine, and the performances superb, especially Zach Galifianakis, Keir Gilchrist, and Emma Roberts. There is a scene where Zach Galifianakis, a patient but also a mentor to the kid, says "If I were you....I'd just live" That's what the movie builds to, a reminder that that, wherever we are, there are always moments of opportunity for us to do the living in our lives, if we will just stay awake and realize it.

Roger Ebert - Reviewer Extraordinaire

I love the movie reviews of Roger Ebert. After seeing a movie that speaks to me in some way, I often check out his on-line reviews (rogerebert.suntimes.com) and find, without fail, that he helps me understand more clearly what I've seen. He's a wonderful writer and is incredibly perceptive. Give it a try.

Hello Fall

Columbine - the book

I just finished the book "Columbine" by Dave Cullen. It's been out for a while, got rave reviews, and I'm partial to non-fiction. But...the Columbine massacre was such a pernicious event, so horrible, that I wondered why anyone would want to read about it. But my curiosity about the accolades this book received won out and I finally picked it up at Barnes and Noble, paperback, and got swept up by the author's superb writing.

After finishing, I tried to figure out why I appreciated the author's work so much and found the answer in an astute comment by the Charlotte Observer (in the review excerpts in the first few pages): "It opens with a proclamation of love and concludes with an image of redemption, and what unfolds in the pages between them is extraordinary...A remarkable achievement...Cullen has brought illumination to a dark and difficult topic, and the result is an example of literary nonfiction at its finest: masterful, clear-eyed, bold--and unforgettable."

Our Photos

I've recently written essays about a couple of photos I treasure.

I hadn't looked at the photos for awhile, though both were near, one hanging on my bedroom wall. They capture a genuinely happy moment in the life of someone I loved but is gone.

Writing made me examine them more closely than I ever had, and I felt grateful at these memories refreshed.

I came across a memorial today with the following quote:

"What the heart once owned and loved is never lost."

The joyous moments and loved ones we've had in our lives are never lost, but can fade from consciousness as busy living grabs our attention.

Our photos often get filed in albums and stored away from sight and memory. Some are thrown loosely into a drawer, never to be seen again. But these are our historical records. Why not pull them from storage and see what we looked like, what we did back then, and with whom, and how many truly happy moments we had with those we loved?

April 3rd mid-day

Late Winter Sunset

Elizabeth Gilbert

My wife read "Eat, Pray, Love" and really enjoyed it. The author, Elizabeth Gilbert, just came to Harvard Square to a packed church to speak about her new book "Committed." My wife and daughter attended. They said Ms. Gilbert recommended that writers spend their time getting things down on paper and refining it, and joining writer's groups for feedback, rather than spending their precious time and money in graduate writing programs, or worrying what other people think of their ideas, because it's the writers who are actually doing the work of writing, not their critics.

She has certainly given many people a lot of joy, a result of her finding her own voice, expressing her honest opinions, and letting them fly.