Thoughts concerning Monsters, Rats, Toys, and more...

“You’ve got a friend in me” …The cymbals clang… “You’ve got a friend in me…When the road looks tough ahead and you’re miles and miles from your nice, warm bed… You just remember what your old pal said…you’ve got a friend in me…” Randy Newman crooned to me as I sat in my normal chair thinking about what to write. This song brought classic Pixar images to my mind. Mike Wazowski and Sulley. Buzz and Woody. Dory and Marlin…the list goes on and on…

            (If none of these names come to mind, then I highly suggest that you make a hot cup of coffee and sit down and watch every single Pixar movie ever made. 24 hours. It will definitely be worth it. )

            As I thought about these different Pixar friendships, I began to think of the different Pixar characters. Monsters. Robots. Toys. Cars. Fish. Rats. Retired superheroes. Bugs. What was it that all these characters had in common? Well, they weren’t Disney princesses or soaring superheroes. These were the characters that we, the audience, don’t always hear from. Sure, monster movies began with Frankenstein and Count Dracula, but when has there really been a movie from the monsters’ perspective? Or the toys? Or the rest of the Pixar characters?

            Pixar sneakily took the characters that usually play supporting roles and gave them their own stage and spotlight. That’s why you are able to see a rat cook or a robot fall in love. I can just picture John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Pete Docter sitting around a table like King Arthur and his knights of the round table. After a tall pile of crumpled idea papers heightened, one of the three probably voiced: “ What if we came up with a character who hasn’t had a movie of his own? An underdog character?” Someone else probably had the great animation muse whisper in his ear: “TOYS”. Yeah, maybe more of a scream. Thus was birthed Toy Story—a movie from the toys’ perspective. Sure, toys have had other movies, but not many from their own perspective.

And toys were just the beginning. Next came a bug circus followed by comedic monsters and then by lost fish. Suddenly a retired superhero was revamping his career and a rat cooked in the top French restaurant. Pixar took normally ignored characters and gave them a story—a purpose. Now, you and I (as the audience) can become friends with these underdog characters. For the child, the monster under the bed will become a funny friend and not a horrifying scarer. Rather than thinking of a robot as a meaningless piece of machinery, we can see that it is still capable of love despite its pre-programming. Not only is Pixar giving its audience a new look at characters, but it’s also planting creative seeds within kids.

Maybe the next time you see a child scribbling down his own story or coloring in his little green monster, you can think of the writers who inspired him. The writers who taught those children to take a second glance at characters—that there is more that meets the eye to their little dinosaur toy or the chubby caterpillar on their windowsill. So, when you see one of these children, encourage them, rather than rolling your eyes. And rather than snickering, inspire them. Don’t underestimate their imagination.

            And, that’s how magic is made. 

  

Contemplations of Wee Hobbits

        Just recently, as I was trailing through one of my favorite Lord of the Rings movies, The Fellowship of the Ring, I was caught off guard by a certain scene. Thus was birthed deep thought. Thus was birthed this blog post. Enjoy!

         The scene that really caught my eye was when Frodo and the gang first arrived in Rivendell. This is the first time that Frodo is able to speak with Bilbo, since this whole ring ordeal started. As the viewer, you’re wondering what this hobbit conversation will entail. Will Frodo give the ring back to Bilbo, since Bilbo was the one who placed the burden on him originally? Or maybe Bilbo will snatch the ring from Frodo’s neck and take off with it? Well, since The Fellowship of the Ring came out on DVD a few years ago, rather than yesterday, you most likely know what happened. But, I think that we can revisit this scene and learn so much more.

        Frodo is caressing the map of the Shire with his fingertips. You see the aching in his eyes. That’s where he wants to be. Why isn’t he?

 “ I miss the shire,” Frodo turns to Bilbo, “I spent all my childhood pretending I was off somewhere else. Off with you on one of your adventures. But my own adventure turned out to be quite different. I’m not like you, Bilbo.”

             But, that wasn’t just Frodo speaking. It was me.

           How many times do you catch yourself saying, “I want an adventure. I want to live big. I want to do something with my life.” I mean…who doesn’t? I don’t know when the last time was that I spoke with someone who said he wanted to do utterly nothing with his life. Some of us want adventure. Why do we even read or watch movies to begin with? We all want to journey with a character through whatever he or she is going through or pretend like we are there. Not many of us can deny having done what Frodo said. We spend our childhood pretending we are off somewhere else. Not just our childhood, but also our youth and our adulthood.  I know that I still do. I picture myself living off in London or gallivanting around China. White water rafting in the Redwoods. Mountain climbing on the Alps. Hitchhiking through Romania. Taste testing authentic Middle Eastern foods. One of the main reasons that I watch Doctor Who is because I still haven’t found my own doctor and blue box to travel in. I crave adventure.

         Yet, this isn’t a classic speech about how Frodo wants an adventure or wants to do something with his life. It’s just the opposite. Frodo misses the shire. As non-adventurous as it was, Frodo wanted to be back there, surrounded by the clean calm air where wraiths were absent. He yearned to smoke his pipe without seeing his orc sword turn blue. The calmness and serenity of the Shire is what Frodo wanted. He wasn’t like Bilbo. Frodo’s adventure was much different.

I can’t even count how many times adventures are claimed for the sake of adventure. Now, I don’t condemn that whatsoever. What if Alice thought practically and ignored the adventurous tug of her heart? Well, in that case—good-bye Cheshire cat, goodbye white rabbit with a waistcoat, and goodbye talking flowers! 

But, Frodo’s case is much different. Following a rabbit down a rabbit hole is much more appealing than standing above the grim malice that boiled within Mordor. And if Frodo had the same intention as Alice (for adventure and curiosity), then he would have never taken the ring in the first place. See… why was Frodo not like Bilbo? Bilbo, like Alice and many other characters, journeyed for an adventure. Bilbo never wanted an adventure at first until he went on one. Then, that became all Bilbo wanted. He had to be taken from the quiet life he knew and had to learn to want an adventure. Frodo never had that issue. Frodo grew up pretending he was off on one of Bilbo’s adventures.

However, Frodo had to take the next step. He was still going to complete an adventure, but he couldn’t go for the purpose of just an adventure. His reasoning had to be deeper than that. He had to go for the purpose of doing what was right. Like Frodo, I must develop a similar purpose—completing adventures for more of a reason than just wanting a good adventure. Suddenly, gallivanting through China turns into helping the Chinese people. Hitchhiking through Romania means talking to the Romanian people and being one of the few to listen to them. All of us want a Bilbo adventure with big spiders, slayed dragons, and dwarf songs. But, not many of us will willingly take a Frodo adventure. He barely made it out in the end.

That is a tough pill to swallow. Frodo wasn’t a young rebellious teenager wanting to get away from the clutches of his small town quiet home, in order to seek adventure. He was going to face more evil than most people had faced and all he wanted was the familiar brush of the Shire’s cool grass or the laughter of the hobbits lighting up the air.

Now, many of you who are reading this may not be choosing whether to go slay a dragon or destroy a ring of evil in the fires of Mordor. Most of you are just like me. An ordinary person making ordinary decisions. But, even you can relate.

As a girl I would dream up what I wanted to do and when I wanted to do it. Now, as those major life decisions come near, I yearn for the days of old. Like Frodo, I yearn for the shire. Why is there such a difference? Because one is real and one is imaginary. In my youth, I could choose whether I would marry that person or not. As a woman, I make that decision. Now, it’s not a “Hmm…never mind” decision. It is a decision I will live with and honor till the day that I die. Frodo understood that. He understood his childhood fantasy of adventure. He also understood the adventures and the decisions connected that trailed behind his every move.

Yet, seeing Frodo’s decisions shows that there is still hope for the ordinary person—you and me. Despite how desperately Frodo wanted the Shire, he moved on. Not only for the sake of an adventure, but also for the purpose of doing what was right. He wasn’t a child imagining he was on an adventure with Bilbo anymore. This was real life. Real decisions.

See how helpful listening to a hobbit is. Even the smallest people can teach you the greatest lessons. 

Stuck in Wanderlust

“Someday, someday, my country will come…”

What is something that makes its recipient physically exhausted and emotionally stimulated all at the same time? An activity that takes all of yourself, yet you continue to willingly give more. For a moment, you are able to step away from your busy hectic life and drown yourself in the beauty of culture. Yes, you guessed it. Traveling. Going to a new place with a constant buzz of wanderlust is one of the greatest things I’ve ever experienced, especially when one does not only travel to a new place, but also to a new culture. Why do I like traveling so much? Simply because of this quote: “When you’re a kid, they tell you it’s all… grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that’s it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It’s so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.” (Doctor Who). I want to see that world.

Now, I just came back from a long, strenuous, beautiful, and enchanting trip to Europe, specifically Stockholm, Sweden and Tampere, Finland.  Claude Monet once said “Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad…” I believe my European experience was exactly that—a conglomeration of beauty.

Strolling through Stockholm. Just beautiful.

Like any culture and country, Sweden and Finland has its upsides and downs. Yet, when I first arrived there... I was a Juliet, who was newly in love with her Romeo. See, that is exactly what this experience was like—being in love. The same butterflies, lightheadedness, and eccentric giddiness that may accompany youthful love was the same feeling that traveled with me in Europe. Yes, as odd as it was, Europe was my Romeo. Clothed in cobblestones streets and dressed with accents, euros, and history, Europe made me fall madly in love with it. Yet, once I arrived back in America, I realized some hard to swallow differences as a foreigner. Enjoy a sneak peek into my European experience:

 Walking down the cobblestone streets (Please America, get some!), I felt drenched in the history and culture surrounding me. A man speaking in a different accent. Foreign letters coloring the signs. Foreign billboards. New and different foods. Foreign. New. Foreign. New. Excitement. Thrill. Adventure. I could go on and on. See, when I travel, I want to be completely taken back and surprised. Sweden and Finland did the job for me.

Having completely novel people introduced in my life with their own culture, languages, mannerisms, and more was a complete roller coaster of excitement. One of my personal favorite Swedish & Finnish cultural perks was “fika”. Now “fika” (pronounced fee-ka) is the coffee break for the Swedes and Finns. Wait a second…Americans have coffee breaks too, right? Well, not like these people. Picture delicious food, arraying from berry crepes to delicious foreign cinnamon rolls, always at the grasp of your hand. Being a snack eater, I gave my stomach a cloud 9 experience with fika. My stomach was much obliged.

Of course, after the fika, sauna was the next step to my American transformation. Again, yes, the sauna is something Americans have too. But, we don’t take advantage of its full potential, like the Swedish and Finnish people do. So, next time you go to either of these countries…do not skip out on their perks. Sauna and fika? Yes, please.

Delicious fika!

Grabbing my Finnish Ernest Hemingway copy of "And the Sun Rises" in an authentic Finnish bookstore!

When I was traveling with my wee romantic heart amidst Sweden, I had a Swedish friend tell me something surprising about his country—marriage was unpopular. Marriage is handled much differently in Sweden/ Finland than where I come from. Living in the Bible belt, marriage is traditional. In the circles that I run in, the guy and girl meet, develop a strong attraction for the other, date, fall in love, and marry. It’s as simple as that. Take marriage out of the equation? Might as well tell me that dragons and knights were still roaming the countryside.

 So, once I arrived home, I did some research concerning the subject. Practically every web writer I read spoke about the unpopularity of marriage in Sweden. However, as I thought about it, I was less surprised. In America, we don’t realized how divorce has become one of our identifying figures to other countries. Going to Sweden as a foreigner, I was taken back by how marriage is treated differently. Yet, when a Swede visits America, he or she is probably equally surprised by our high divorce rates. When you go to different countries, EXPECT differences. When you marry a man, expect that he will have a weakness or two...if you don’t, then you may feel angry and divorce him. Don’t divorce a country—Number one rule of a traveler. Just because you may disagree with a country’s standards does not mean you have to disrespect it by any means. I adore both Sweden and Finland, although I disagree with them in some areas.

That was just a tip of the iceberg concerning my most recent European travels. Tell me about your own travels & experiences! I would love to hear it! Got a case of wanderlust? Well, you've come to the right blog! Join the club :)

Stockholm, Sweden...Truly a beautiful place.

Laughter in Bottles

I wish you could contain the laughter of every person you met in a bottle. Laughter needs to be listened to, revisited, and remembered often. Whenever a dark day decided to drop by, you could pull out that bottle and unleash the sound that, sometimes, has greater power than many songs and speeches. Say laughter didn’t exist. What if when you went on Netflix to browse for a movie and there was only a selection of drama or horror genres! While you may have weeks full of intense deep novels or movies that produce much philosophical thinking, you should also have weeks of reading lighthearted stories—in other words, add a little of Dr. Seuss to your Fyodor Dostoyevsky reading schedule. Why? Laughter is valuable. If Mark Twain said, “The human race has one really effective tool, and that is laughter,” then we should take ear to the heaviness of this light commodity. 

           I believe that laughter is one of the reasons that America has won so many wars; they've remembered the power behind laughter and joy. Laughter isn't just a natural silly sound. It represents so much more. Behind a single laugh is joy; a flicker of light in a storm, a sparkle of a star on a black night. It was during the depression, the wars, and poverty, that great countries were reminded of how much they needed that joy. This is why J.R.R Tolkien spent so much time describing the Shire and the laughter of the hobbits; this is why Charlie Chaplin was so famous during the Great Depression; and, this is why God mentions joy in His word over 200 times. Writers didn’t create worlds of hobbits, fawns, and fairies just so they could waste time; laughter is as just as important in stories. 

Soak in laughter, but really...bathe in the sweet expression of joy. Cloak yourself with the laughter of your friends and family, and maybe one day we will be able to contain it into a bottle to share with all.

Reading like a Writer

             A few nights ago, I watched the film “Midnight in Paris” for my first time. While this is not a comparative movie review, I will compare this particular movie to a delicious coffee frappe—completely unnecessary for a daily meal, yet completely sweet and perfect nonetheless. But, what particularly stood out in this movie was one certain character and scene involving the infamous Ernest Hemingway. In this certain scene, Hemingway talked about not reading his fellow writers’ written works because writing is a competitive business.

             This made me realize something—I’ve been reading like a writer. Silly, huh? Hear me out first and then tell me that I’m not making any sense. Now, reading like a writer is like when you eat medicine—it’s good for you, only when you eat the required amount. But, what does that mean? …Reading like a writer? Well, maybe giving my own personal story will help relate this concept. Skimming through an ocean of novels, I usually choose one of my favorites. Maybe, in this case, I would choose Fitzgerald (staying right in line with the “Midnight in Paris” theme). Usually, I would slobber and sit in awe over his brilliant and majestic sense of language (an understatement entirely!), but there will always be a voice in the back of my mind—my writer’s voice. On constant repeat, my writer’s voice will slip in comments like “Look at this incredible author, could you really achieve something like that?”, “Does your syntax compare…never!”, “Read his imagery.”, “He certainly thought of that story idea before you.”

           

Now, fellow writers, you all must admit that sometime in your life you have heard this ominous writer’s voice…you could even call it the Jiminy Cricket of all the writing Pinocchios. Constantly, as I would read, this voice would be replaying over and over again. My reading even came to the point of making me a nervous wreck. I lost joy in the story and saw literature only as a means to perfection. But, watching “Midnight in Paris” made me aware of my problem—I was reading like a writer. I tried to remember a time when my writer’s voice was silent and mute. When was the last time I had read a book with wide eyes ready to guzzle in all the splendor and imagination contained within literature? Salman Rushdale once said, “literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth, but truth of the tale, of the imagination, and of the heart.” I saw myself journeying on the road to successful writing, while neglecting to bring that love of writing that got me there from the start. Sure, Fitzgerald, Dickinson, Frost, and even Hemingway were all top-notch writers, even masters of literature. And, yes, of course I aspire to write like them. However, I can’t let that aspiration reach a level of bitter competition—the kind that Hemingway (in the movie) mentioned.

           An even greater question is discovered—Where would I even be without these writers? These writers are some of the reasons that I have such a love for literature. If it weren't

 for great authors, then I would have never seen “real toads in imaginary gardens” (Marianne Moore’s reference) or seen a lion teach majestic truths through Narnia. These writers introduced me to Rip Van Winkle, Mr. Darcy, Katniss Everdeen and Schindler. Those pens allowed me to understand the oppression of the Uglies, but also allowed me to rejoice with Frodo when he finally destroyed the ring. These authors are the ones who inspire me daily to find a pen, paper, and in this case, a laptop. And, then all these realizations concluded themselves into one powerful statement—I needed to approach reading like a reader, someone who has had a feast of words, concepts, stories, and thoughts laid before her… all previously prepared by the great storytellers themselves. 

Why I Blog 101

                As I began writing my first blog entry, I asked myself what the heck I was doing. Would this simply be another twitter account or perhaps the ancient Facebook page? Was I simply just jumping into another boat of social media? As I scrolled over my thoughts and wondered this (a few cups of Earl Grey tea helped jump kick the process)…I realized what I was really doing. I was stepping foot into terrifying territory. I was officially proclaiming myself to the world as a twenty first century writer, who was unafraid to use the worldwide web in order to voice my writings.

            Yet, as I thought about it, the fear began to creep slowly and softly into my mind. The monster under the bed was hastily rushing towards all my thoughts and clearly making itself visible. I was afraid.

            Everyone will encounter a decision that will lead him or her to a journey or adventure some time in his or her life…at least, I hope. Percy Jackson had to realize that his pen was not really just a pen, but also a tool that would lead him into several adventures. Alice had to make up her mind concerning whether she would daydream in a tree or see what that white rabbit was up to. Even King Arthur had to make the decision of staying where he was, inside the safety of his kingdom, or facing the perilous “monsters under his bed”. Well, I’ve not a pen/ sword hidden anywhere (although that’s up for discussion) and I’m not technically the head of a round table yet, but I do have some decisions in life to make. As you can probably guess, one of them is this blog. You could compare me to King Arthur because I am in fact leaving the comfort of my blogless life and am departing into the perilous cyber universe of blog writing. Blog writers who have seen, done, and have probably written more than I have.

            But, all have those intimidating factors appear when we encounter any adventure. Bilbo Baggins certainly didn’t complete his journey without an intimidating dragon breathing down his neck (no overstatement intended). So, if this is one of my many adventures I will have to decide on, then I should consider myself lucky, since I haven’t read of a “blogger’s death by dragon” yet. I could be intimidated by the soaring bloggers and the oh-so-many cyber writers, but I won’t be. I will look at blogging in the face and with as much guff and gusto as Bilbo, Arthur, and Alice, I will start adventuring.

            Also, because I am a fan of quotes ( you may see my obsessive tendencies with quotes very soon), I couldn’t think of a better way to end this first post than with one of my favorite quotes—“ “People wonder why the novel is the most popular form of literature; people wonder why it is read more than books of science or books of metaphysics. The reason is very simple; it is merely that the novel is more true than they are.” G.K. Chesterton wrote this and I’m so very glad he did. Now, to set things straight, this blog is not going to be a novel, yet as Chesterton wrote, I hope that this blog has a similar impact as the novel does. I don’t want this blog to be a confusing set of writings that makes readers strain their eyes. Rather, picture this blog as me meeting you at an authentic little café in France. We’re strangers who have somehow met each other. We both order a classic cup of something or other and then we begin to talk. We talk of life, culture, religion, politics, and everything that constitutes this majestic and complex universe we live in. You will be honest with your thoughts, as I will with mine. We will share words. That’s why I want this blog…to simply conversate with my readers. Welcome to my blog--"Living with Freckles". You will see and hear how I live…with my freckles…& words.