Hip Hop Kids

"You gotta stop actin' figurative and start actin' literal!"

Pure Imagination?

"Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination

Take a look and you'll see into your imagination

We'll begin with a spin traveling in a world of my creation

What we'll see will defy explanation"

~"Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

A couple weeks ago I was having dinner with a friend and I told him about an audio book I was listening to, a biography of C. S. Lewis.
"Wasn't that guy on a lot of drugs?" he asked.
"No, I think you're thinking of Lewis Carroll, the guy who wrote 'Alice in Wonderland'. C. S. Lewis wrote 'The Chronicles of Narnia'." I pointed out.
"Right, well both of them must have been on drugs. There's no way they could have imagined those stories without drugs. There's just no way."

I pointed out that neither of these men were under any sort of influence when they conceived of these stories-it was pure imagination. It didn't matter to my friend that I told him the real stories behind these men and the creation of their stories; he refused to believe that they could have done it without some sort of psychedelic aid. This baffled and bothered me, and I later went to my journal to try to write out why this was so. Why is it that people believe that creative genius' like that of Carroll and Lewis could only create masterpieces like "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" with the aid of drugs?

Perhaps some people feel that the only way they can 'tap into' or 'release' their creative side is by taking drugs. Otherwise their own mind's own rationality limits their creative impulses. Perhaps the left side of their brain is holding the right side captive, and drugs are the only way they know how to release it. Being a very right-brained person myself, I'll admit that I don't know how a person whose life is dominated by the left side of their brain might think, but I'll at least recognize that our ways of viewing the world will offer different perspectives. While I see magic and adventure, my friend sees rational explanations and linear logic. While different, both perceptions are completely acceptable. Why is it then, that a world viewed through lenses of creativity and whimsy, isn't viewed as achievable with only the power of one's imagination?

For those of you who aren't familiar with how the timeless children's classics of "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" came about, I offer you the non-drug-enhanced truth:

Lewis Carroll (born Charles Lutwidge Dawson)

In college I took a children's literature class and came to read "Lewis Carroll in Wonderland: The Life and Times of Alice and Her Creator" by Stephanie Lovett Stoffel. Stoffel's book tells the story of Carroll's life, and how the story of "Alice in Wonderland" was created. It all started when Henry George Liddell was hired as dean at Christ Church College and Cathedral in 1855, the same year that Carroll began his career as a mathematics professor there. Carroll was fascinated by photography and on April 25, 1856 he was roaming the grounds taking pictures when he met the wife and three daughters of the dean. The youngest daughter, Alice Pleasance Liddell, would later be immortalized as Alice in Wonderland. 

Carroll, himself a bachelor, came to spend much of his free time with Liddell's wife and children. He loved children, and especially enjoyed playing word games, riddles and puzzles with them, as well as photographing them. Having no children of his own, Carroll cherished these times, and he came to form a strong bond with Alice. One of his favorite pastimes was to rent a boat and take the family out on a float down the Thames, then picnic at Nuneham estate, about 5 miles down river from Oxford.

On a beautiful sunny day in June 1862, Carroll had arranged to take the Liddell family on one of these outings. While paddling to their picnic destination Alice demanded that Carroll to tell one of his marvelous stories, and so he began to tell of Alice and her journey down the rabbit hole. This was only one of many tales that Carroll created during these outings, but Alice enjoyed this one so much that she asked him to write it down for her when they returned. And so he did, and thus we have "Alice in Wonderland". 

C. S. Lewis (born Clive Staples Lewis, but went by Jack Lewis to friends and family)

Today I finished listening to the audio book, "The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis" by Alan Jacobs, a brilliant and insightful look into Lewis' life and work. A significant amount of attention in this biography is paid to the creation of "The Chronicles of Narnia". As chair of Medieval literature and fellow at Magdalene College at Cambridge, Lewis spent much of his professional life publishing papers on this subject. As a newly converted Christian later in his life, much of his personal life was spent on writing works such as "Surprised by Joy", "The Screwtape Letters" and "Mere Christianity". 

Like Carroll, Lewis was a bachelor (until his 60's when he married Joy Gresham) and never had any children of his own. As a child Lewis loved to read, and especially loved the animal stories of Beatrix Potter. He and his older brother Warnie also created the imaginary world of Boxen, inhabited and run by animals. Carroll was also a great friend of J. R. R. Tolkein's, and in their writing both men agreed that they enjoyed writing books that they themselves would want to read.  

And so later in life, in between 1949 and 1953 Lewis wrote "The Chronicles of Narnia". Despite his conversion to Christianity, Lewis wrote in one of his journals that "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" came to him first in a series of images: a faun carrying a package; a white witch on a sledge; a wardrobe in an empty room. From these images Lewis wrote the type of children's book that he himself would have enjoyed reading as a child. Some people believe that Lewis wrote "The Chronicles of Narnia" as a way to proselytize children to Christianity, with Aslan the Christ-figure at its center. But in fact, the image of Aslan did not come to him until he was half-way done with the first book. And he noted that once the lion entered the picture, the rest of the story fell easily into place. Although the story wasn't originally intended to be a religious allegory, Lewis allowed the images he saw, and the characters that sprang to life from those images, to tell their own story. 

In looking at these men and their stories, I believe that in a way, the waking and uninhibited mind is as powerful a drug the world has ever known. It's a fact that we only use a very small portion of our minds as it is. There lies so much untapped potential within each of us, that we could spend the rest of our lives lost in the depths of our own minds and imagination, and never run out of things to surprise and astonish us. The imagination is a wild and often unpredictable thing filled with uncharted territory. It is there within each of us, waiting to be explored. 

A Year of Altruistic Giving

"Hands Open" by Amrit

I love NPR. Not only because I think they have amazing programming, but because of the quality of their stories. On no other station have I been exposed to such a vast array of stories with such high quality reporting; stories of war and conflict and government, but also stories of happiness and hope and love. I have to admit that my favorite ones would probably be considered the "smaller" stories, but to me they're the ones that carry the greatest meaning. Today the story that captured my heart was about a 36-year old man named Reed.

Reed lost his non-profit job near the end of last year and found himself unemployed for the first time in his life. But unlike many others in his position, he decided that beginning on December 15, he was going to give $10 a day to one randomly selected person, then tell their stories on his blog. After listening to his story I immediately went to check out his blog, and I think he summed up the goal of his project perfectly:

"My goal is not to change the lives of those with whom I come in contact. Let’s face it, $10 dollars is not going to change someone’s life in and of itself. I do believe, however, that the act of giving will hopefully inspire others to pursue the ideals that the French philosopher Auguste Comte envisioned when he coined the term “altruism.” Whether that comes in the form of someone who reads this blog and wants to embark on their own Year of Giving or someone who uses the $10 to help someone else out, the specific results are less important than the overall good that we can achieve together." ~Reed

The act of giving should never be about one's self-it should be about the other, the receiver. And it's not about what you give either. There's a section on Reed's blog for favorite quotes, and there's room for people to add their own favorites to the mix. One woman wrote in with an Arab quote:

"If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart."

How simple. How beautiful. How so very easy to do. And yet so few of us take the time to give.

On my way home I stopped at a gas station in downtown LA, and a gentleman came up to me and asked if he could wash my windows in exchange for even the smallest amount of change. He needed bus fare to get down to the welfare office. I felt bad because I only had a handful of change, maybe $0.64 total, and my car is admittedly filthy-not exactly an equal trade. But the man, his name is Titus, said that any little bit helps. So we chatted as Titus washed my windows and I waited for my tank to fill. Before parting I gave him a Starbucks gift card along with my change. It wasn't much, but after all everyone needs a little pick-me-upper from time to time, right? We shook hands and went on our separate ways. Would I have given Titus the money even if I'd never heard the story of Reed's "Year of Giving"? Probably. But it never hurts to be reminded of how simple an act the act of giving really is, and how great a ripple it creates through the hearts of both giver and receiver.

Check out The Year of Giving blog

Lost in Madeline L'Engle

"Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth." ~Madeline L'Engle

I just spent the entire day reading, and I honestly can't remember the last time I've allowed myself such a luxury. It was lovely really, to wake up on my own, without an alarm sending blaring alerts to awaken my peacefully slumbering self. And when I did finally awake (around 8am...yes that's sleeping in for me!) I immediately began to read Madeline L'Engle's book "Camilla".

Now I should preface this post with a note that I recently had the pleasure to meet my brother Kevan's new girlfriend Lindsey, and I knew we would get along famously when she suggested a book swap. I gave her some Neil Gaiman, T. C. Boyle and Laurie King; she in turn gave me three Madeline L'Engle books. Prior to today the only one of her books I've had the pleasure to read was "A Wrinkle in Time", the first of five books in her "Time" series. I loved it, but had failed to make a further foray into her work. Until today.

Today began with "Camilla", a beautiful story about a young girl's discovery of self, and in so doing learns the joys and pains of love, and that her parents are not gods but merely people themselves. I found myself completely caught up in Camilla's self discoveries, feeling that she was speaking directly to the 14-year old Carolyn I once was. Yet it also spoke to present-day Carolyn too, and I imagine that if I were to reread this book 10 years from now, it would speak to me still. By the time I was to go give volunteer at the Stow House, I had finished the book and wanted more.

After giving tours at the Stow House for a couple hours I returned home, to find that I still had my quaint ranch home to myself. I thought about cleaning or answering emails or any number of arguably more productive projects I could have started, but I found that all I wanted to do was continue to read; and so I did. The other 2 Madeline L'Engle books Lindsey had given me were part of a series, the Katherine Forester series that is, and "The Small Rain" came first. After reading L'Engle's introduction I learned that this was the first book she ever wrote, and that in between writing this book and its sequal "A Severed Wasp", there passed 37 years and 29 books. And so I found the latter part of my day absorbed in the world of Katherine Forester, a young girl whose parents are both distinguished musicians, and who finds herself caught up in a struggle with her own inner artist after she's sent away to boarding school. The story follows her journey through childhood and the loss of her mother, and consequently her journey to figure out who she is.

In reading these two books back to back I found many easy parallels to draw between the two female protagonists along their journeys to self discovery. But I also found myself still surprised by the tiny subtle differences in their respective experiences, and found both stories moving and captivating. I found them to be in a similar vein as Judy Blume's lovely books "Are you there God, it's me Margaret" or "Blubber", that I had loved as a young girl, and loved even more after recent rereads.

A day lost in the worlds of Madeline L'Engle is a day well spent indeed, and for those of you who have not yet had that pleasure, please be sure to indulge. Although she is best known for her children's literature and young adult fiction, do not be fooled into thinking that your adult self will not be able to draw anything from these stories.

"You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children." ~Madeline L'Engle