How to live forever and change the world

Here's inspiration from a young man who once portrayed my character's son in an indie film....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHNALcttrQo

What Storytellers Do

The following I adapted from a speech by Tom Hanks' character in the film Saving Mr. Banks:

Forgiveness is what we learn from art, from books, from plays.  The author forgives himself.  Because life is a harsh sentence to impose on one’s self, and authors redeem themselves through writing.

The author must trust himself, must not disappoint himself.  Where there is blindness, the author gives sight, reveals truth.

The author’s characters, especially the main character, are precious to him.  If he trusts himself, he won’t be disappointed.  And every time anyone reads his words, they will witness characters revealed, understood, saved, honored.  They will love these characters with the guileless trust of children.  They will weep for their cares, they will wring their hands when they lose, and in the story’s final moments, they will rejoice in the humanity of these characters, they will sing.  For generations to come, the author’s characters will be honored, and they, as well as the author, as well as his audience, will be redeemed.  All these characters stand for will be saved—along with the author and his audience—not in life perhaps, but certainly in imagination. 

This is what we storytellers do.  We restore order with imagination.  We instill hope, again and again and again. 

Artists, authors, playwrights, all, trust yourselves.  Prove it to yourselves, and you will prove it for everyone for all time.  Your work is the meaning of your life, the fulfillment of your promise to the universe.

Responsible Art

There's currently an allegation of racism in an upcoming staging of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.  I’ve not investigated the matter sufficiently to form an opinion one way or another.  

But I have an opinion about Kipling’s original collection of stories.   When I was a teenager, The Jungle Book was alternately inspiring and comforting to me.  I didn’t care who or what Kipling was.

I've always believed that art should stand on its own merits.  Politics—or political correctness—or how a writer’s life may inform his or her art, only interfere with one’s appreciation of it.  And to analyze works from a different era through the prism of today is a distraction. 

To the extent socially responsible writers self-consciously avoid offending people, they offend their muses.  Responsible art is responsible only to art.  Art has no cause but the honest expression of itself.

A priest once told me he needed an operation, and confided to me that his surgeon could be an atheist for all he’d know or care.  He just wanted the best surgeon available.  That’s how I feel about art.  I want it to be the best available, not the most high-minded. 

Second Thoughts

I’ve written many letters (and emails) the sentiments of which I reconsidered and disavowed. Fortunately, I had already sent very few of these.

Heartbeat

It’s like breathing and eating, there really isn’t much change in what needs doing every day. I will blog, but only from time to time. As I wrote in the last post, a writer has other writing to do—at least, I do.
I recently commented on an innocuous post on global warming (under Conrad's post comparing The Nobel Prize and American Idol), and pretty much got “flamed” (there’s a pun there somewhere). I still am determined to stay away from the contentious issues of the day. I don’t think it will do me any good as a writer to get personal regarding my opinions on politics, religion, etc. The fact I’m saying so, however, suggests it’s a matter I reconsider from time to time.