Neverland
Today was an excellent day. After church and working with Beatrice, my friend from Liberia who I'm helping to learn English, I joined my friends Janelle and Brad to see Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. (Back to that in a moment.) I also had a nice dinner with them, and went to the annual Global Reflections Christmas concert at my congregation. I also got a big secret off my chest, and was rewarded with laughter.
For the first time since Amelie, I saw a movie with whose protagonist I related. Perhaps it's just the recent creative streak that has kept me from updating this blog as often as What, You Too? might like, but I've come to discover that I need peace and quiet and introspection to be the creative person I'm meant to be. And that I can't be creative in all genres at once. When I write there's no room for screen-printing. And when I screen-print there's no room for painting. And when I paint there's no room for writing.
Back to the movie. There are two scenes in Finding Neverland that completely resonated with me.
In the first, Johnny Depp's character, James, invites his wife to go with him to the park. "Are you going to write?" she asks. He considers his journal. "Yes," he says. And his wife decides to stay home.
In the second scene, James' wife has confiscated his journal, looking for clues of infidelity within. She finds nothing but his creative process. She expresses disappointment that, having married a writer, she is never transported to that realm of ideas where he finds his inspiration; and disillusion upon learning that such a place does not exist.
When we write, we do live in another world. But it's a world flavored by our real-world experiences. And if we don't allow ourselves to have real-world experiences, we can never conceive of places such as Neverland.
And even if our friends and lovers and spouses can't join us for our fictional flights of fancy, we'd like to have them join us for an afternoon in the park.
Today was an excellent day. After church and working with Beatrice, my friend from Liberia who I'm helping to learn English, I joined my friends Janelle and Brad to see Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. (Back to that in a moment.) I also had a nice dinner with them, and went to the annual Global Reflections Christmas concert at my congregation. I also got a big secret off my chest, and was rewarded with laughter.
For the first time since Amelie, I saw a movie with whose protagonist I related. Perhaps it's just the recent creative streak that has kept me from updating this blog as often as What, You Too? might like, but I've come to discover that I need peace and quiet and introspection to be the creative person I'm meant to be. And that I can't be creative in all genres at once. When I write there's no room for screen-printing. And when I screen-print there's no room for painting. And when I paint there's no room for writing.
Back to the movie. There are two scenes in Finding Neverland that completely resonated with me.
In the first, Johnny Depp's character, James, invites his wife to go with him to the park. "Are you going to write?" she asks. He considers his journal. "Yes," he says. And his wife decides to stay home.
In the second scene, James' wife has confiscated his journal, looking for clues of infidelity within. She finds nothing but his creative process. She expresses disappointment that, having married a writer, she is never transported to that realm of ideas where he finds his inspiration; and disillusion upon learning that such a place does not exist.
When we write, we do live in another world. But it's a world flavored by our real-world experiences. And if we don't allow ourselves to have real-world experiences, we can never conceive of places such as Neverland.
And even if our friends and lovers and spouses can't join us for our fictional flights of fancy, we'd like to have them join us for an afternoon in the park.
1 Comments:
Oh dear, I seem to have offended everyone in one fell swoop. Shall I print a public retraction? :-) Welcome back. How was your sabbatical? Any word from the Quill?
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