the old man in the grocery store: written word wednesday edition

i was sitting in creative writing today, zoning out because really, who can focus in an 8 am class listening to other people's sometimes pretty lame stories? not me. and i was looking out the window, at people pretending to be really cool and skateboarding--no, longboarding (big difference)-- and walking to class with scarves and jcrew jackets and coach bags. it's that time of year again in denver, the cold weather time. so, naturally, the uggs-with-tights looks has made its triumphant reappearance, too (GROSS).

anyway, rants about materialism and ridiculous fashion trends aside, i was sitting there and i thought of a story idea about this old man who goes to the library every day to read, and every day, he sits on a park bench outside to eat the same ham and cheese sandwhich. every day. well, not the same sandwhich everyday, but the same general kind of sandwhich. he goes into the grocery store one sunday to get more ham, and they tell him they're out, so he argues with the poor lady for a really long time. then he turns to leave and the ground starts shaking and it turns out there's some bomb raid going on or something crazy like that. maybe just a really bad earthquake. anyway, our professor told us to put a character in a really unexpected situation and that's what i came up with. just in case anyone was curious. it's a pretty fun exercise to do, so you should do it. it's good for your brain and your imagination.

for the revival of written word wednesday, i chose...where the wild things are.

the book, not the movie. books are always better than movies. the simplicity and yet complexity of the book is so powerful that the movie can only be seen as a separate work of art, at least in my opinion. so this book is genius and probably one of the best books out there. my theme for the week has been NEVER GROW UP, so i thought that this book was only the greatest choice ever. really, that's been my theme my whole life.

anyway...this book. it's great. on a basic level, the illustrations and story are awesome and powerful. sendak creates a whole world in just a few pages with just a few sentences. but the story extends beyond just these sentences and just these pages, living on in all of our imaginations and inspiring us to be more max-like. on a more profound level, sendak blends the real world--max's mom and his dinner, for example--with the fantastical and the magical--the monsters and max's whole journey. he plays with time and space to build up this fantastical realm and just creates this universe that i'm sure we would all like to be in. i know i would.

"and he sailed off through night and day
and in and out of weeks
and almost over a year
to where the wild things are."

beyond all the analytical stuff, the words are just powerful. i don't know about you, but they give me goosebumps every time i read this book. it's an escape, but it's not an escapist book. it gives us an opportunity to refresh our perspectives and become more child-like in the best possible way and it applies to our lives at any given time at all. (so it's an opportunity to escape to a higher level of living, rather than an escape to run away from our lives, but i guess it can be that, too.) it uplifts us out of our "worlds" and re-teaches us what's important: love, family, imagination, and wolf suits. and huge monsters and boats. thanks, maurice sendak.

oh man i missed written word wednesdays. but maybe they're back! on probably an un-regular schedule.

happy written word wednesday. and let the wild rumpus start!