Back to the Beginning

May 19, 2006

Back to the Beginning

One of the reasons I haven't been writing so much here is because I've been immersed in learning. I feel like, in alot of ways, I've been returned to past beginnings. My Kung-Fu training is taking me to where I was before I had learned any Karate, a place that needed developing, strengthening, changing.

I feel like a martial art infant, learning to sit, stand, and walk. I can tell that I'm impatient, seeing others running and wanting to run with them. My teacher said, "You're moving like a tiger, and I want you to move like a dragon." I've got a lot of re-training to do.

Nevertheless, I'm just so happy to be studying what I've wanted to study ever since I was interested in martial arts. I feel like I've finally found what I was looking for all these years.

I've also been reading through Rhetoric of Fiction by Wayne C. Booth, and it seems I'm being reminded of the most fundamental aspects of how a written story is communicated. For instance, I've been returning to the question, "How reliable should your narrator be in the eyes of your readers?"

No person is completely reliable. And I struggle to imagine someone who is completely unreliable. I think we learn to expect certain qualities, good and bad, in people. And, for myself, I've learned to expect people to be themselves, changing in a way only they would.

I'm being reminded of core personalities by Booth (unintentionally) and intentionally reminded of my core body by my Kung-Fu teacher. The core (or center) is often a starting place to learn about life, and I've been returned back to those beginnings to learn.

Advertisements

Permalink