Setting Things Down

Prior to starting my blog, I was always impressed with all the bloggers out there who seemed to come up with interesting, entertaining, and delightful things to post--often on a daily basis. Since starting my blog, I have become even more impressed. Because I most definitely don't have things that merit a blog post happening on a daily basis...or maybe I just need to pay closer attention.

Just yesterday I read this great line in our book club book for this month, "As she [referring to the narrator's sister] only cries about once a year I really ought to have gone over and comforted her, but I wanted to set it all down here. I begin to see that writers are liable to become callous" (I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith). I cracked up at that, especially since the book was originally published in 1948 and takes place in the early 1930's. I wondered what this quite delightful teenage narrator, Cassandra, who is striving throughout the book to become a writer, would think about things like reality TV, social networking, Twitter, and yes, even blogs. "Setting things down" might become ever so much more overwhelming than the journal-writing Cassandra already finds it to be. Sometimes I have to wonder how people manage to live their lives when they are so busy documenting every detail. It's a puzzle, and it's far too daunting a task for me.

But, I also believe that writers, to stereotype and generalize quite liberally, are definitely not callous. I know that "setting things down" always helps me be more thoughtful about experiences I have and the people I interact with every day, which is the very opposite of callous. It often helps me sort through what matters most.

I hope I can strike a balance between living my life and "setting things down." For starters, here's just a little shot from this weekend. As a very land-locked Californian, who manages to keep moving further inland, I am immensely grateful we have a lake five minutes away. If you squint just right, you can imagine you're at the ocean. Or, you can just look in wide-eyed appreciation that at least there's a big body of water so close by. It's one of my favorite places to be here, especially on a beautiful day in early February with my boys and their friends. I am reminded of a quote I have loved since I was a teenager: "Whenever I stray too far from beachland, the ocean calls me back" (Robert Murdoch). The ocean is calling me, loudly, but the lake keeps me patient, just enough, until the next time I can get to "beachland." I am grateful.

Two of my boys, with two of their friends, contemplating the beauty of the lake...
 or, more likely, all the S'mores they just ate.