A group night out for our little church group, for a birthday. We went to see “Bridge to Terebithia”, admittedly a children’s film, but actually pretty moving. I’ll try to keep the plotline, in case you do want to go to see it, but it has lots to say about how kids deal with difficult things in life, including bullying and parental expectation.
Why the impact for me? The main characters, a boy and a girl, are each outsiders in their primary school. She has words. He has pictures. Together, they encourage each other in imaginative responses to their environment, and to issues at school.
Given that I loved writing, and Dan loved drawing, it seemed like a familiar tale. You could equally say that we’ve managed to continue these things into our current careers. But it can be easy to continue the activity, and forget the passion, the excitement that it used to have.
Perhaps the main impact of the film was to encourage me again to continue writing, whether it’s sensible or whimsical, useful or perhaps just indulgent.
It’s good to live in the real world, but it doesn’t mean that the worlds in our minds are necessarily to be abandoned.
May 27th, 2007
There had to be an admission sooner or later. My name is Alison, and I confess to Su Doku. Do you play it? Do it? Is this now something to confess to, given that su doku fever has dimmed a little?
Perhaps I can give a comparison. Back when I was teaching English in Poland, words were my stock in trade, morning noon and night. I enjoyed it, but it meant I wanted something unrelated to words to wind down in the evening. Mum kindly sent me cross-stitch samplers, which did the trick.
Not that much has changed on the words front. I may not teach now, but much of my work involves words, emails, letters, phone conversations etc. Numbers have become quite a good way to relax, particularly on work trips, where words continue from morning to night, including over mealtimes with clients.
Yes, it is addictive. I can’t do the fiendish ones very often, but I can usually manage the difficult ones fairly reguarly. It doesn’t matter that you’ve just solved one - you feel the need to do another one. Immediately. And preferably even faster than the previous one. No wonder the Japanese, the originators of su doku, include how long they take to solve a puzzle.
Now my travel kit includes a magnetic su doku board. I admit that I’ve still to get the hang of it a bit more - the hand and eye skills are a bit different to writing in the numbers with a pen.
Having chosen a job that is ‘useful..worthwhile…’ and many other balanced, equatable things, it’s quite nice to do something that is not particularly constructive, but just fun.
May 27th, 2007