The written word

Reading is such a strange and yet beautiful thing. As I have been reading more and more lately, I have been more and more inclined to turn of the TV and read a book instead. Reading is such a wonderful thing because it invokes thought, wonder, joy, and excitement. Reading also inspires more reading. I just finished one book last night and I have already started another one. Once you find something that you thoroughly enjoy reading about, you want to find as much material about it as you can get you hands on. The possibilities are literally endless. There are more books out there than on man could ever possibly dream about reading in his lifetime. This is not to say that all books have substance and are good, but that still leaves an almost endless amount. It really does enrich your life. I think, that in the last few months I have read more as I am getting into reading than I have in the last few years.

Reading also inspires creativity. If I had not been reading lately, I probably would not have started this blog and would have nothing to say because I was not putting anything good into myself. It is like my old youth pastor, Marc Bolling, used to say: "Garbage in, Garbage out". If you are only feeding yourself garbage, than that is all you will get out. On the other hand though if you feed yourself with things of substance, you will get good things out.

Like I said before there is an endless amount of material out there for you to read. There are so many different genres, subjects, authors that you almost have to find something you like. I hope that everyone would be as enthralled as I am in this new fascination of mine that is reading and maybe, just maybe we would have something to show for ourselves. Otherwise we will continue down the path we are going and it leads to nowhere. Just think of it this way: the great minds of old did not merely amuse themselves with trivial things, they sought to better themselves and now they are considered great. There will be no more minds like J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, or G.K. Chesterton if we only amuse ourselves with trivial things. Think of our minds like an axe, they constantly have to be sharpened against a hard stone to maintain their edge, such as we have to sharpen ourselves by constantly giving ourselves something to grind upon.

-Danny

Breakdown or breakthrough?

Something a little different...

"Constantly worrying, constantly wondering, fearing, hardly sleeping, hardly eating. Everything is a haze. Driving down the road watching the oncoming traffic and thinking with a flick of my wrist how easily it could all be gone. Always in the back of my mind. Worry. Worry about bills, about my future, or lack thereof. Will I ever get back on my feet again? Where am I going to get the money to pay my bills? Why cant I find a job? What is wrong with me? I feel like I am on the verge, on the brink of a breakdown. This world is so unforgiving to people down on their luck. Will I become just another number. Another faceless tragedy in the hundreds or thousands of people “down on their luck”. If not for a few people that care about me, I would. If I was truly on my own, I wold be a causality of “luck” run out. Homeless, possesionless…loveless. I refuse to be a number. I would sooner die than end up like that. I will not lie down and take it. Bring it on."

-Danny

Creativity is a dying art

As I was watching tv tonight, I realized this. The more I think about it the more I realize that it is going on everywhere. Nowadays tv is just mind-numbing junk designed to just keep kids entertained but not to inspire creativity, not to make kids want to go out and create something great or make something better. Sure tv has been for a long time a main source of entertainment, but the quality of the shows that are on tv has only gone downhill.

Maybe tv is not the best example or not convincing enough? Lets talk about movies. Movies are the same mind rotting garbage just in a two hour version. Very few movies now are really worth watching. You go to the movies and spend at least $8 on a ticket and watch the movie, and you come out of the theatre with only less money and nothing really to show for it. I think that it is truly sad that movies are not the way they used to be. Years ago, probably before I was born, movies really used to be ABOUT something. Movies would INSPIRE you. Kids would come out and dream of being that hero of the story. Two great directors that still can instill that feeling in me come to mind: The late John Hughes who passed away recently, who made such films as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and many more. I think he was a great director that really connected with the youth of the 80’s and made them feel like the movies were for them. The second director is Hayao Miyazaki: director of Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Monnonoke, and the upcoming film Ponyo. Miyazaki stands out to me, not only for his beautifully animated movies, but the stories that he tells with them. They are all so creative. I know there are tons of directors that I am overlooking from long before I was born who were truly pioneers in what they did.

Another thing that is dying, if not already dead is handwritten letters. With e-mail and all of the “social networking sites” there are now nobody writes handwritten letters anymore. I was reading a blog by a girl who knew John Hughes and she was actually pen pals with him. They would actually write letters back and forth to each other. One thing that Mr. Hughes said to her regarding writing stuck out to me:

“…Do you like the way you write? Please yourself. I'm rather fond of writing. I actually regard it as fun. Do it frequently and see if you can't find the fun in it that I do." –John Hughes.

I think Mr. Hughes had a good point here, especially for beginner writers like myself. It should be something fun for you to do. I think that if you can start out just writing to please yourself, and have fun with it, then you can eventually write for many people and express the joy you had in writing it to them and in turn, inspire creativity in them as well. I want to charge anyone who reads this to try just shutting off the tv for a while. Pick up a book, get inspired, get creative!

-Danny