As I sit making THE list for writing projects I hope to tackle in 2012, I can’t help but reflect on the profound influences that have left indelible marks on the emotional landscape of my life.
As writers, I believe the living script of our existence is the treasure chest from where we summon the seeds of creativity that bud and blossom in our stories. We report, invent, and metamorphosize moments, feelings, and events that have profoundly touched us.
As I wave farewell to 2011, here is a list of 11 notches on my consciousness, in no particular order.
Seeing my parents cry when John F. Kennedy was shot.
Watching WIZARD OF OZ for the first time on a color TV and freaking out because the Wicked Witch was green.
1968 – Viet Nam, the soldier on my POW bracelet never came home. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. being assassinated.
Two perfect children.
The Berlin Wall coming down.
Losing my brother and too many friends to the villainy of AIDS.
Beloved books: Peter Pan, The Three Musketeers, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gone With the Wind, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter.
Star Wars, because Luke Skywalker and I were facing our destinies in the same year. He as a Jedi, me in college.
Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion, Mammoth Caves, Grand Teton, Crater Lake, Grand Canyon National Parks, and New England in October.
What memories are etched in your minds?
