Shadow Puppet Storyteller

A structure -- even if it can't be a Lego House

I keep forgetting that a fresh movie, or a live performance can really kick start the creative faculties of my brain. I never would have imagined You Tube would become one of my new "go to" places to get a fix.

The good that I've learned is the performance I admire need not take a big chunk out of my day. It doesn't need to be a whole movie date. Yesterday, I could only catch the last half-hour of the Academy Awards telecast. And in that amount of time, I got to take in the embellishments to the Dolby Theatre, giving a lift to the designer in me. I got to witness a stumble Jennifer Lawrence took trying to ascend the steps, and commiserated with her the slight embarrassment. I saw the emotion overcome Daniel Day-Lewis as he was handed the Best Actor statuette from Meryl Streep. And sat amazed as he recovered through humor and sincerity and deliver an eloquent speech that included recognizing his wife Rebecca for all that she endures when he embodies a character for months at a time.

The point is, I wasn't interested so much in who won, but the moments that unfold in the context of an awards show.

The same is often true when I write, because somehow I write strong moments, but I am still learning to fit my moments into a good structure. And it often stops me from writing in the first place if I don't have a pre-formed structure in mind. I joked with my daughter that Ed Sheeran must be thankful for Lego bricks or he couldn't have written his lyrics to Lego House the way we know them -- I said, he'd have to substitute Lincoln Logs, or something. Of course, she still thought Lincoln Logs fit in the context of his song just fine anyway, despite my jest.

Well, even this entry is a little jumbled, but I'll like it the way it is for now.