Wednesday, April 13, 2011

. . . speaking of which . . .





I am really grateful for humble heroes who don't mind making a boy's day by smiling big for the 100th time late at night so a kid can have this memory forever.

(In case you don't know, these are Jackson Emery, Jake Heaps, and Jimmer, whom we ran into at the Y Awards last night. Thanks, Papa John for passing along your tickets.)

I love taking B to things because he has such an amazing capacity for enjoyment.

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Jimmer-Mania

Well, we had some this year.

And not all of it (ahem) from the males in my family.

The thing is, it was just really, really fun.

And I have been short on fun in the last five years of my life.

My kids were wowed by Jimmer's skills, but the thing that charmed me was his boyishness. Really. You could tell this kid was having a blast, all the time. And I loved his openness with his emotions.





It made it easier for us to live the whole thing vicariously through him--yeah, he was insanely talented, but he was just a normal kid, just like us.

And, oh yeah, it was fun being a fan.

Friday, April 01, 2011

Notes from AML Conference

So here are some of the notes I jotted down as I listened to the incredible sessions last weekend. Keep in mind that these are not quotes from the speakers, but rather the end-product after I heard them say something similar to what is here. They've passed through my brain and possibly picked up some errors, faulty implications, ominous overtones, whatever. Mostly I'm just putting them here because I don't want to forget them.

Josh Allen on Epiphany in Fiction:
We trust the epiphany because the world which is discovered is demanding and complex.

We also need doubt. Remove it in an epiphany and you don’t have truth.

In good epiphany, truth isn’t tidy. Epiphany leads character to question other things. Good epiphany increases complexity, so we trust it. (Example: 2 epiphanies in Wizard of Oz. Bad=”there’s no place like home,” resolves everything. Good=man behind curtain.)

Insights that make things harder.

Go to a Mormon bookstore and examine the epiphanies. What is new? Nothing. All is already known. Closed universe.

Jack Harrell:
God enters chaos in which elements aren’t distinguished from each other and then divides and organizes.

God is the meaning (logos). Writers (and all creators) create meaning from the chaos. God lost 1/3 of his spirit children; writers are acquainted with failure, loss.

Good art: not just a means to re-present what we have, but to expand joy and understanding.

Meaning is discovered in the world as it is. Natural state is chaos.

From citation for Patrick Madden’s Quotidiana:
Each essay begins with the mundane and meanders into deep meaning.

Kathy Soper on Memoir Construction:1. Explore opposition.
2. Structure meaning.
3. Forster communion.

John Bennion’s admonition to those on study abroad, about touring and also about writing essays: “Wander, not knowing beforehand where you will go.” “Abandon interpretation.” “Step back. Hold back your judgment.” [Me: both in writing and in regards to self and others.

Marvin Payne on Marden Clark’s essay, “Liberating Form”: “He only wrote the essay in order to say what he said in the last two pages.” [Me: that should be the way of any written art. To the audience, you say, “You can’t hear that in the right way unless you live through this artistic experience first.”]