This is a very personal post. Outside, here the rain has given the streets sound, in the form of every passing car. Some of my kids love this weather. I'm not sure why, but maybe it is partially due to me.
I have always loved complicated weather. Maybe because when the outside world begins to reflect to me the way my emotional arc travels, the whole universe seems much more in sync.
Or maybe because I'm just looking for an excuse to stay inside and feel safe? So rain says, "David, don't go out."
Of course, there is no safety in staying home, in the end. A disaster could easily strike, such as Katrina or a massive earthquake. Then, if I survived, where would I go?
The only way we grow and develop is by reaching out, going into the snow or the rain and finding out what our earth has to teach us, once the climate becomes challenging.
It's not less true in heat.
A long time ago and long way ago, I learned this lesson on an island in the Gulf of Mexico. There, I had the rare privilege to walk a long beach utterly alone, collecting seashells and other treasures left by the sea.
In the process, I was recovering my physical health, which had been compromised by infections I picked up in India and Afghanistan.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Storytellers, Anonymous
Do you ever wish you could back through time and change things?
Whenever I teach a class in memoir writing, I'm struck by the high degree of emotional honesty of my students.
By that I mean they try very hard to tell their story as they think it occurred, regardless of whether it casts them in a good light or a less than flattering light.
I've often been struck by this -- that people are willing to try so hard to get it right.
What we have at least partially in common with others is our past together. The parts that overlapped between our lives and theirs is our shared history.
Each of us owns a share of that past, and to tell that story, we have to do it in our own way.
Because, of course, story-telling is generally a solitary art form.
There are new, collaborative story-telling models emerging, courtesy of technology, but these remain to be developed in robust enough ways that the traditional model gets broken.
For now, it is me telling our story my way and you telling it your way.
As a writer, I've always been very sensitive to the nuances of how the other person might choose to tell our story as opposed to how I do.
These are boundaries, creatively, that need to be preserved, IMHO.
Then again, when the other person absents herself entirely from the process, choosing silence, I suppose your only choice left is to reflect her POV best you can, as you truthfully try to tell the tale.
-30-
Whenever I teach a class in memoir writing, I'm struck by the high degree of emotional honesty of my students.
By that I mean they try very hard to tell their story as they think it occurred, regardless of whether it casts them in a good light or a less than flattering light.
I've often been struck by this -- that people are willing to try so hard to get it right.
What we have at least partially in common with others is our past together. The parts that overlapped between our lives and theirs is our shared history.
Each of us owns a share of that past, and to tell that story, we have to do it in our own way.
Because, of course, story-telling is generally a solitary art form.
There are new, collaborative story-telling models emerging, courtesy of technology, but these remain to be developed in robust enough ways that the traditional model gets broken.
For now, it is me telling our story my way and you telling it your way.
As a writer, I've always been very sensitive to the nuances of how the other person might choose to tell our story as opposed to how I do.
These are boundaries, creatively, that need to be preserved, IMHO.
Then again, when the other person absents herself entirely from the process, choosing silence, I suppose your only choice left is to reflect her POV best you can, as you truthfully try to tell the tale.
-30-
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
How Many Special Things Happen in a Lifetime?
Here is a link to my oldest son Peter's work on how fruit flies use sunlight to navigate. The only time I (and a friend) visited his lab at Cal Tech is one of my fondest memories.
It is illustrated by my youngest daughter Julia's work on an iPad.
Seeing his research in print is an amazing honor for me, as his Dad. He is not only a talented scientist, but a fine writer. Most important of all, his work matters.
And so does his little sister's. She is trying to establish her voice as an artist.
-30-
Today's News Today
I'm so proud of one of the companies I often work with, Wikipedia, for its leadership today in the anti-SOPA/PIPA movement. There is evidence that what Wikipedia and other leading Internet companies did today will perhaps cause these well-intentioned, but dangerous bills to go back for revision, so that they never get the opportunity to cause much more harm than good.
Which is what would have happened had they been passed and signed into law.
Don't get me wrong. I oppose online piracy, just as fiercely as I oppose all forms of plagiarism. As a lifelong journalist, I have been victimized by plagiarists on a number of occasions. And the content that I constantly create has been stolen by many.
One funny story in this regard is something a former staffer of then Senator Al Gore told someone I know years ago. It seems that Gore had prepared a statement declaring that he had created the concept of a "circle of poison" to describe the process by which banned pesticides from the U.S. were being dumped in Third World countries.
In fact, that phrase was the title of my first book, co-authored with Mark Schapiro. I can assure you that Al Gore had nothing to do with it.
Of course, stealing ideas is not necessarily a crime -- people have done it since time immemorial. And, with the Internet, everything happens at hyperspeed, including the theft of intellectual property.
But SOPA and PIPA are not the right way to deal with piracy, stealing and copyright infringement.
Those of us whose only real assets are our intellectual skills, in the form of the ability to create original content, stand the most to lose from those who poach, and copy and exploit us.
But we also must stand on the front line of free speech, because without it, we wouldn't be creating content. We would be in jail.
My note to our legislative leaders is to try and write legislation that actually addresses real problems in ways that promise real solutions. Do your homework. Don't create sledgehammers to fix problems better attacked with a well-placed pencil lead.
-30-
Which is what would have happened had they been passed and signed into law.
Don't get me wrong. I oppose online piracy, just as fiercely as I oppose all forms of plagiarism. As a lifelong journalist, I have been victimized by plagiarists on a number of occasions. And the content that I constantly create has been stolen by many.
One funny story in this regard is something a former staffer of then Senator Al Gore told someone I know years ago. It seems that Gore had prepared a statement declaring that he had created the concept of a "circle of poison" to describe the process by which banned pesticides from the U.S. were being dumped in Third World countries.
In fact, that phrase was the title of my first book, co-authored with Mark Schapiro. I can assure you that Al Gore had nothing to do with it.
Of course, stealing ideas is not necessarily a crime -- people have done it since time immemorial. And, with the Internet, everything happens at hyperspeed, including the theft of intellectual property.
But SOPA and PIPA are not the right way to deal with piracy, stealing and copyright infringement.
Those of us whose only real assets are our intellectual skills, in the form of the ability to create original content, stand the most to lose from those who poach, and copy and exploit us.
But we also must stand on the front line of free speech, because without it, we wouldn't be creating content. We would be in jail.
My note to our legislative leaders is to try and write legislation that actually addresses real problems in ways that promise real solutions. Do your homework. Don't create sledgehammers to fix problems better attacked with a well-placed pencil lead.
-30-
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
This Site Is Blocked
In solidarity with the anti-SOPA/PIPA movement, this blog goes dark tonight. We will not post any new content during this Internet-wide protest.
End these legislative intrusions!
Or else, this blog, and many other, much more important communication channels, shall cease to exist permanently.
P.S. Just try to access Wikipedia right now...
End these legislative intrusions!
Or else, this blog, and many other, much more important communication channels, shall cease to exist permanently.
P.S. Just try to access Wikipedia right now...
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Nuances of a Day
The first-ever meeting between the youth teams of the professional San Jose Earthquakes vs. the San Francisco Seals this morning was an entertaining match in blustery western San Francisco.
Bruised up a bit after the game, my player (#16) said he enjoyed the game, which was close, and that the opponents reminded him of a team he'd faced in Europe last summer, also a youth professional development team, that one from Sweden.
Afterwards, I drove down the peninsula for a work meeting as the startup I'm helping prepare for launch approaches D-Day.
Tonight, my daughter came over for a relatively rare evening alone. I prepared edamame, rice and beans, with cheese, and a plate of fresh fruit. When she's the only one eating with me, I'm happily vegetarian, just like her, I find.
It's a pleasing experience for me.
With the boys, I'm a carnivore, not quite a "paleo"-diet fanatic, but we eat a lot of meat-centric meals.
At the end of the evening, after our healthy food, my daughter and I shared a bowl of popcorn while watching one of her favorite TV shows.
Just another day here in our town.
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