Monthly Archives: December 2012

A Sense of Worthiness

For those of you who also grew up watching The Neverending Story (1984), you’ll remember the scene when Atreyu must pass through the First Gate on his way to the Southern Oracle. Atreyu scrambles down the hillside, eager to face his first test. Perched above him, Engywook warns that “the Sphinxes can see straight into yourContinue reading “A Sense of Worthiness”

Generosity and Optimism

MFAs cost a lot of money. Upwards of $30,000. But a cookie at my local bakery? Not so much. Every Tuesday and Friday, in a small corner cafe, writers come from around Seattle to write alongside Robert J. Ray and Jack Remick. For two hours, we talk shop and creative process and life. And thenContinue reading “Generosity and Optimism”

The Only Way Out Is Up

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we are free to do anything,” a character in Fight Club says. And it’s true. Failure gets a bad rap because people don’t understand what it means. We assume that failure is permanent. Final. And so is success. As if these are static–rather than momentary ups and downs along theContinue reading “The Only Way Out Is Up”

Courage in All Its Forms

I love this painting. It hangs on a white wall in a spare black frame in the Museum of Modern Art at 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan. Kazimir Malevich painted it, probably in 1912, amidst Russia’s bloody and prolonged transition from imperial state to democratic republic. With Russia’s loss of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905,Continue reading “Courage in All Its Forms”

The Unanswerable Question

Toni Morrison once said that she often begins her novels with a question. Something difficult to answer. Maybe even impossible. And in a society that values the final product above process, ends before means, facts over wisdom–this seems revolutionary to me. During my college years, I had a mentor who believed we all had “seminalContinue reading “The Unanswerable Question”

Aim Small, Miss Small

So a friend told me each time I lined up a shot on the pool table. What he meant was don’t just target the cue ball. Pick a specific point on the surface where I want to leave a chalk mark. And choose a specific point on the ball I’m aiming to sink. Know exactlyContinue reading “Aim Small, Miss Small”

How Much

The questions I’m tormenting myself with at the moment are: “How much is too much?” and “How much is enough?” “A word count, a page count–it’s so arbitrary,” one writer told me last week over her historical fiction novel. “And if I don’t meet it, I feel miserable. Why would I do that to myself?”Continue reading “How Much”

A Question of Faith

Years ago, when I was still in the church, I was having a conversation with an atheist. “But you have faith in something,” I assured her. “Everyone believes in something.” “Nope. Nothing.” She was 43, a mother of one of my friends, and I was 18. Brash, confident, always ready for a debate. “But youContinue reading “A Question of Faith”

Family Tree

“In such a dissolved society,” novelist Jack Remick said, “Americans are hungry for cohesive units.” In “a nation of outsiders,” we flutter like moths toward anything that resembles family. So true. But how did we get this way? And what can lead us out of it? Thinking over my own life, I see I’ve hadContinue reading “Family Tree”