Welcome to the new look! Hopefully this is much improved to the tacky red and gray disaster this blog was before. I think it still needs some tweaking, but at least I can stand to look at it now. Just for your information, this painting is an ever-famous one in the local community--it is by John Hafen, and it's entitled "Girl among the Hollyhocks."
Since I have renamed this blog to encompass my musings, allow me share the first musing under the new guise. The fam has already heard this, but that's okay. I was thinking recently about one of the reasons I became interested in the writing aspect of my college degree, and it makes me once again want to write a book or at least something that is lasting. There's a fantastic address given my Orson F. Whitney entitled, "Home Literature." It's a fascinating read, if you're interested in that sort of thing, but I love what he has to say about the literature of the Mormon people: he says "We will yet have Shakespeares and Miltons of our own." That's a pretty bold statement in 1888 when most of the people were just trying to survive in a barren land where the government still hated them. I'm guessing most didn't have time for extensive courses in rhetoric or the art of writing. Yet he states that "In God's name and by his help we will build up a literature whose top shall touch heaven, though its foundations may now be low in earth." I think there are many wonderful writers and philosophers of our time and in this religion, but we are not nearing Shakespeare, Milton, or Carlyle just yet. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be part of that great work--at least at getting closer to that goal of having some of the finest literature ever produced coming from this history and background?
Susan Cooper (a well-known children's author) once said in a speech I attended that you must write from "a deep longing for home"--a concept the Welsh talk about. How interesting that she would talk of that and her own "deep longing" in her highly acclaimed writing. If you write from that deep longing, then what a reservoir the Mormon people must have to draw on! Perhaps one day (soon, I hope) I will stop musing on such things and start working towards them instead.
7 comments:
the new blog looks great!
I like the look too. And that would be awesome if you wrote a book! I would definitely read it, and get you to sign my copy. :-)
It's lovely! Someday I hope to figure all this html stuff out to use it to my advantage. Until then I'm stuck with the ho hum template. It gets the point across, I think...
And I would read your book too! I still sometims reflect on that book you talked about with no e's that was translated from French. Maybe you could do something like that... :)
Wow, is this page hot or is it just Maurianne?? Ok, it is just Maurianne. Love the picture, of course!
Shut UP! You got to hear Susan Cooper speak?! The Dark is Rising Sequence are some of my all time favorite young adult books. Have you read them yet? She really does a fantastic job of portraying the conflict between good and evil powerfully and realistically. I hope you do write a book some day. That would be splendid! I'd like to do the same, but right now I am going crazy just trying to keep the laundry caught up. "To everything there is a season", right?
I love the new picture on your blog--it is so . . . YOU! I will start searching the shelves of the bookstores next spring for your book--does that give you enough time?
Thanks for the book-writing encouragement everyone! Maybe if I can find a sugar daddy to support me so I don't have to work, I can take it seriously. hah. Jill, yes, I saw Susan Cooper speak. She's seriously amazing. I LOVE The Dark Is Rising sequence. That's some quality literature right there.
Post a Comment