From our very origin humanity has been striving to unravel and unveil the grand design, the very scheme by which this vast Universe, and all within it, works, and the ingenuity by which it all begun, as well as where it is all evolving to. In this pursuit, as history has shown, we have wasted a lot of time seeing ourselves as unique, the center of it all, the ones around whom everything revolves.
I challenge students to expose themselves, not physically but spiritually. I call upon them to “take the condom off their head”, have an unsafe idea, for life is too short and precious for following in someone else’s steps, make your own path through an untapped space.
To many the “system” is the symbol of oppression, the foe to resist in almost any cause. To us, not understanding something is a challenge that motivates and inspires, it ignites our imagination, makes us restless until, if fortunate, we arrive at an answer, a climax, whether right or not.
These days, when technology plays such a significant role in all aspects of our lives, and in much of what we do, there is a strong relationship between “IT” and our imagination: when they are not in balance, technology itself can overshadow imagination and seemingly become the ultimate answer to all. But when they are, technology empowers us, acting as our “magic wand”.
To share ideals and bring about meaningful transformations one needs a voice. Coming from a country where artists were the heralds of freedom and the voices for change against an oppressive system shaped by single-minded and intolerant ideology and resulting government, I have found mine through the power of imagination.
Now, having observed Japanese society, the way it was taught to control their emotional and physical demeanor, I am un-startled by their adamantly unshaken, orderly, ongoing trust in authorities. It leads to a polite, restrained, reverently subdued reaction to what ensued due the corporate negligence, and a secretive, cunning cover up that continues to define what is being done to them.
As I reflected in my previous blog, Japanese are true perfectionists, in all they do. Thus, when it comes to political correctness, over centuries, and elected isolation from the external world, they turned it into an art form, a nature, but at what cost? Bowing projects a wonderfully charming sense of politeness and respect, but it does not end on just one bow, it goes on, and on. It is very carefully and skillfully choreographed and, as such, not spontaneous.
"Are you insane?” "Have you lost your mind?" "Are you not afraid?" "Don't you realize this is the worse time to go there?" This is just a sampling of the polite examples of reactions and comments my plans for a trip to Japan had triggered. And yet, based on my own life’s journey, I understood early on that, sometimes the worse time could be the best, the most raw, sincere, revealing and insightful.
When invited to become a AWN expert blogger, my instantaneous reaction was - “why me?”
The reason I use Excel to develop story structure is based on a writing principle I discovered years ago. I call it getting a God’s-Eye View of the story. I realized that by writing my outline beats in a normal word processing program it took screen after screen to go through my scenes. So while I was looking at one portion of my story, the rest of the story was out of sight. And as they say, “Out of sight, out of mind”. But when I write I want all of my story in mind. And here’s how I do it...
