1) From yesterday's Thought for the Day (I know, I know), an interesting gobbet:
The theologian Walter Wink has identified a particularly dominant narrative
found around the world. It goes something like this: goodies are oppressed by
baddies. Along comes the hero, and through threat or force, liberates the
innocent and overcomes the evil doer.
So that'll be the most common out of the seven types of plot, then.
2) From a great piece in the Washington Post (tips to OHB) about an experiment it conducted to see whether aural beauty could be discerned by weekday commuters (generally, they didn't):
When Picarello was growing up in New York, he studied violin seriously,
intending to be a concert musician. But he gave it up at 18, when he decided
he'd never be good enough to make it pay. Life does that to you sometimes.
Sometimes, you have to do the prudent thing. So he went into another line of
work. He's a supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service. Doesn't play the violin
much, anymore.
When he left, Picarello says, "I humbly threw in $5." It was humble: You can
actually see that on the video. Picarello walks up, barely looking at Bell, and
tosses in the money. Then, as if embarrassed, he quickly walks away from the man
he once wanted to be.
Does he have regrets about how things worked out?
The postal supervisor considers this. "No. If you love something
but choose not to do it professionally, it's not a waste. Because, you know, you still have it. You have it forever."
There's a lesson in there somewhere. Just don't really or fully want to acknowledge it.
3) A discussion about Barbara Ehrenreich's new book, Dancing in The Streets: A History of Collective Joy, prompted this thought:
True rebellion now means you have to dance, consume less, and be idle, and not always in that order.
I look forward to practicing.
Labels: lessons narrative plot rebellion vocation dancing
