Advice for your inner writer

"Here, write it, or it will be erased by the wind." - Isabel Allende

Familiar

I read The City of Ember in one evening. Its the tale of a city in the dark that lives in fear of the lights going out. The protagonists are two 12-year old kids Lina & Doon. (Can I just say that I love the name Doon?)

What I liked? My absolute terror of absolute dark that I shared with the residents. On a tour of Mammoth Caves when I was 18, the tour guide shut the lights. I've had a life long issue with claustrophobia (likely resulting from my oldest brother's love of locking me in small dark spaces). The kind of blackness you get in a cave makes you feel like the most trapped creature ever. Even thinking about it makes my skin crawl. So whenever those lights flickered in Ember. I was petrified.

What I didn't like? The story is oh-so predictable. Maybe not all the details, but from the very beginning you know where everything is leading. I have so little patience with predictability anymore. Surprise me, dammit!

This story reminded me a lot of Lois Lowry's The Giver. I wouldn't rank it above or below that story. I'm giving this a 5. I'll likely read the next book in this series, but I won't be in a hurry to do so.

Hold on

A Pueblo Indian Prayer

Hold on to what is good,
even if it's a handful of earth.

Hold on to what you believe,
even if it's a tree that stands by itself.

Hold on to what you must do,
even if it's a long way from here.

Hold on to your life,
even if it's easier to let go.

Hold on to my hand,
even if I've gone away from you.

the only meaning

"And we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten, but the love will have been enough, all those impulses of love return to the love that made them, even memory is not necessary for love, there is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning." - Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Living in the dark

Dark Days is a documentary about people living in the subway tunnels of NYC. Filmed entirely in black and white, the movie has an otherworldly feel to it. I can't imagine living in darkness among the rats as these folks do. Sunlight is so essential to my mental health; the idea of 24 hour darkness sends shivers down my spine. I give this a 6.5.

each hurt swallowed

"Promises" by Rita Dove


"Each hurt swallowed
is a stone." Last words
whispered to his daughter
as he placed her fingertips
lightly into the palm
of her groom.

She smiled upwards
to Jesus, then Thomas,
turning her back as
politely as possible.
If that were the case
he was a mountain of shame.

Poised on the stone
steps of the church,
she tried to forget
his hulk on the vestibule,
clumsy in blue serge,
his fingers worrying the
lucky bead in his pocket.

Beneath the airborne bouquet
was a meadow of virgins
urging "Be water, be light."
A deep breath, and she plunged
through the sunbeams and kisses,
rice drumming
the both of them blind.

Zack & Miri

We watched Zack & Miri Make a Porno last night. Kevin Smith is so clever! The dialogue in this had me howling. Craig Robinson (Darryl from The Office) is awesome. Jason Mewes is hysterical. There were only two not-so-great bits for me. The minor one is a serious gross-out bit that my husband loved, but I thought was just too disgusting to take. The second is that as funny as the movie is, the romantic part of this made me yawn. I just didn't find them that interesting as a couple. Maybe I'm heartless.

Anyway, this gets a 7 in my book.