Mystical Consequences of Karma

"Advocating for story architecture is like teaching your kids about the world—tell them to do as you say, not as you do, you tell them about the golden rule and the law of attraction and the mystical consequences of karma, and you do your best to explain that good things happen to good people who live by these creeds.

And when it doesn't . . . well, that's life, and it's not always fair. Doesn't mean it's not a valid principal."

- Larry Brooks. Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing. Writers Digest Books, 2011. pg 216.

Don't Give Others Your Power

"You felt terror at the prospect of failure, of mistakes, of the criticism of others. So you became dependent on others and lost your freedom. Others now have the power to make you happy or miserable. And much as you now hate the suffering this involves, you find yourself completely helpless."

- Anthony De Mello. The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of. Image Books,1991. pg 139

Ongoing Life Program

"Reading can be part of an ongoing life program, empowering the reader to rethink present coping strategies, to try out new behaviours, new moves."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 99

Reading empowers all of us. We can see how characters have dealt with situations and what consequences sprang forth from their decisions. Thus, in the future, if we come across a similar situation or predicament, we have already had a little bit of a rehearsal in how to deal with it. That is only one way that reading can help us.

Gold thinks that we should read to also help us cope with things that have already happened. We can identify with characters and thus be removed from our own situation slightly.

As you can see from the label cloud on the sidebar, I have extensively quoted Joseph Gold here. His ideas about story and literature really speak to human experience and I am glad that I can share them with you here.

The Power of Story

"For the first time then, she caught a glimpse of what the power of speaking might be. It wasn’t a matter of confession, penance, and absolution like the priests offered. It was something else entirely. Telling the story of who she was, and then realizing that she was no longer the same person, that she had made a mistake and the mistake changed her."

- Orson Scott Card. Speaker for the Dead. Tor Book, 1986. – transcribed from audio book

I really like this quote and how it speaks to the power of story. I think Card is an amazing storyteller and is doing more than just delivering a tale to entertain us.

This book is the second in what is known as the Ender series. All the books have been produced as stunning audio books with full cast narration and sound effects. I highly recommend this series. The first book Ender’s Game is amazing and this second book is even better.

Classroom Consequences

We had some professional development this week at school. I really liked what this speaker had to say about discipline. I hope you do too.

"Severity of the consequence is not important. Just the fact that you addressed it is."

- Eric Corvers

Why It’s Called the Easy Way

“Honey, facing unpleasant consequences is tough, but it’s not the toughest thing. What’s tougher is turning down all the good things that can happen to you because you take the easy way out, … which is why it’s called the easy way.”

Will Girardi on Joan of Arcadia Season 1