Remembering ...

IN FLANDERS FIELDS
by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The edge of the box

Lately, I've been reading Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin, and have been both challenged and intrigued by his perspective. Although his expertise is generally considered to be in the hi-tech industry, I've been benefiting from taking him literally when he uses the terms "art" and "artist" to apply to the work done in any (or every) industry.

Here's some snippets that, in the words of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, "have given me furiously to think":

"Artists don't think outside the box, because outside the box there's a vacuum ... Artists think along the edges of the box, because that's where things get done. That's where the audience is, that's where the means of priduction are available, and that's where you can make an impact." (pg. 102)

A readily available analogy for this concept is in writing. Writers introduce new concepts, new characters and new worlds but they do it inside the framework of written communication - grammar, plot, sentence structure and so on. Their creative efforts or art rely on the framework of the known. If a writer suddenly abandoned all rules of grammar and just threw words in any order or any tense onto the page, chances are very good that his/her intent would be lost. There would be no idea communicated, except in a purely visual sense. But even the visual arts follow certain conventions that give their work impact, to find that point of contact with their viewer.

Godin's addressing the idea that art must meet reality in order to truly accomplish it's purpose. In order to make an impact, it first has to make it out the door. He quotes Steve Jobs "Real artists ship" as the basic concept of impact.

Now, I've known this for sometime on a personal level - I produce better and more consistently when I have a deadline. Am I always 100% satisfied with what I've produced? No. But if my satisfaction is the key to moving it out, it will never get out. Let's face it, I can putz with a comma or an area of shading forever. The ship date keeps me focused.

Here's Godin's challenge:

"The only purpose of starting is to finish, and while the projects we do are never really finished, they must ship ... Shipping is the collision between your work and the outside world." (pg. 103)

And it eventually becomes part of the process.

"When you first adopt the discipline of shipping, your work will appear to suffer. There's no doubt that another hour, day, or week would have added some needed polish. But over time -- rather quickly, actually -- you'll see that shipping becomes part of the art and shipping makes it work." (pg. 103)

That's the edge of the box. It means you can't rest on the direction of someone else for your daily involvement in your craft. It means paying attention to each step. Walking the edges of the box take balance, discipline and dedication. But creating on the edge of the box also means that your work can be both satisfying and have the impact you intend. And that's the point at which you become indispensable.

Step out and ship it.

Up to my scuppers?

I'm not a big TV watcher. Have a few shows on DVD that I prefer to watch over and over again, but while traveling last summer, I finally watched an episode of Holmes on Homes. Even where I'm living, I kept hearing, "Don't you know who he is? He's from CANADA!"

Oh.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show and that night I learned what a scupper is - at least related to a home roof. Then I also learned it's actually a boating term. A "scupper" is a drain on a boat.

Which led to this fascinating bit of information - "If you're 'up to your scuppers' you're about to sink..."

It's been a busy time here at my desk. Lots of writing, not enough art, and general business taking up much of my day. There are moments I do indeed feel "up to my scuppers"!

But then that phrase makes me laugh out loud, and I return to the writing waiting for me.

And do it with a smile, too.

(Thanks, Uncle B.)

Sound theories on writing for children?

“They seem to regard books for children with the same tolerant tenderness with which nearly any adult regards a child. Most of us assume there is something good in every child; the critics go on from this to assume there is something good in every book written for a child. It is not a sound theory.”

– Katharine White (Mrs. E.B.White) quoted in
The New Yorker, 7-21-08 “The Lion and the Mouse”

Cleaning house

I've been cleaning and sorting through my studio the past few weeks. And will be tackling the closets soon. But today, I sat down and did the same with my computer desktop, not just the physical one.

And I threw out 1500 words.

I know I may miss having words like pastiche and lugubrious and senectitude tucked away for a rainy day but sometimes we just have to prioritize.

("Word Dump" created at Wordle.net)

Author adventures

School is back in session across most of the nation, or will be next week, for students. And as I think about the year ahead, I still smile about how the year ended for me and an elementary school that I was visiting.

I'd had a week together with a wonderful elementary school in state and it was our last day. Plans were to finish our writing/art projects in several classrooms and then the day would end with a short session with the parents, an ice cream social and a book signing while the parents got a chance to tour around and see what their students had worked to produce. And, as usual, some of the students had done an exceptional job.

So the day began. 8:20 am and I was five minutes in the first session of the morning and - BLINK- the lights went out. Just like that.

It had been raining all week. A steady but strong constant curtain of rain that kept me largely building-bound in a town I was excited to explore. As it turns out, this school is built on the edge of a marsh and one of the big cottonwoods that bordered the marsh had enough of the rain and fell. Snapping a power pole in the process.

Because it is a marsh, the standard equipment couldn't get to the pole to replace it and the crews had to wait for equipment to come up the freeway from another town. The school and the surrounding neighborhood would be in the dark all day. I was told that normally, the procedure would have been to notify parents and let students go home.

But there were two problems with that plan. 1 - the phone lines at the school went out with the power. Everyone would have had to break out their cell phones which would leave the students rather at large while messages, etc were left around town. And 2 - the administrators that would make the let-them-go decisions were in emergency budget meetings.

So the remarkable staff did what all enterprising and resourceful teachers do. They carried on.

We read by open windows, drew in courtyard-rimmed hallways, painted by the light of flashlights and toted water for our painters up the stairs to the better-lit atria in the library. Volunteer-manned lanterns marked the darkest corners of the hallways and restrooms were restricted to the ones with available lighting.

It was a fabulous day! The students really seemed to enjoy the toss-up in routine and still carried on with their work in an almost carnival atmosphere. The staff and parent volunteers laughed and joked and told stories as we figured out the worst of the disruptions. And the principal smiled right along with them, I hope with a measure of pride in how well her school responded to the day in the dark.


My hat is off to Bohemia Elementary for a day of fun and adventure! And maybe I'll make it back for some ice cream some day after all.

Pixels

How cool is this!


PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. - Arts and animation videos.