Indelible Denim

In honor of back-to-school time, I thought I’d post this story I wrote a few years ago about my dear friend, Janet. I was trying to find a home for it in a magazine, but perhaps this is where it is meant to be. You tell me.

•   •   •

When Janet breezed into our dorm room that first day our freshman year of college, I immediately knew what she was all about. She didn’t even have to open her mouth; her jacket said it all.

The denim, faded to a perfectly distressed milky blue, the collar frayed into strings of fringe, the buttons worn to a coppery patina—all swirled together into the epitome of everything a college girl wanted to be: hip, smart and carefree.

Her jean jacket was the real deal, and so was she.

During that first year of school, Janet and I became best friends: inseparable and incorrigible. We studied together, laughed together, drank beer together, played lacrosse together, drank more beer together, gained 15 pounds together, and pulled all-nighters together. All along the way, Janet’s Levi jacket was there.

In fact, her jacket seemed to gain a personality all of its own as it absorbed every ounce of college fun laid in its path. It also soaked up everything from our bad hairdos and purple eyeshadow to eccentric professors and weird boyfriends, weaving them deeply into its soft fabric.

At the end of our freshman year, life shipped Janet and me off into different directions for the summer. My dad had died of cancer earlier that year so I immediately began working several jobs to pay my way through our very expensive private college, while Janet sailed to Tahiti with her family on their boat. I couldn’t afford envy, so I celebrated her adventure, and made her promise to send postcards so I could live vicariously.

With hugs and tears, promises of letters, and plans to regroup in the fall, we parted ways. But not before she unceremoniously tossed a bag at me. “Here, I think it’s time for you to have this,” she laughed.

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First Improbable Blogiversary

Photo of a birthday cake with 1 candleI don’t know whether to be thrilled or horrified that an entire year has whizzed by since launching this blog, but here I am one hundred and twelve posts later, celebrating my one-year blogiversary.

Don’t worry, I won’t navel gaze too much about this milestone. Mostly I just want to say, “Thank you,” to all my fabulous followers who have made this adventure so gratifying.

I thought it might also be fun to share the three things I found most surprising about blogging this year. Here’s what knocked my socks off…

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Savoring the Silent Muse

Olympic torchAt the end of July, when the Olympics kicked off in all its glory, Muse blissfully executed several mesmerizing backflips, complete with multiple mind-blowing triple watusi twists.

Her heart flitted and fluttered, and her skin prickled with excitement as she remembered all the things she loved about the pursuit of excellence.

Her unbridled enthusiasm inspired a river of words to flow from this writer’s fingertips.

Then just as suddenly as Muse’s inspiration took hold, Muse quickly and purposely flitted away.

She didn’t disappear without a flourish though.

No. No. No.

In classic Olympic form, she leaped onto the balance beam, glided across, arms gracefully extended, toes pointed. Then she carried out several impossible flips and dips before finally sailing through the air in an eye-popping dismount.

As she landed she shot me a knowing smile and whispered, “Balance, my friend. Balance. Remember there’s more to life than writing.” 

Huh? Wait a minute. Isn’t she supposed to inspire me to produce my most creative work and encourage me to write, write, and then write some more? 

“Step away from your computer,” she continued, “and savor these delicious weeks of summer with your friends and family.”

Why is she telling me to relax and focus on savoring summer?

Muse clearly knows me better than I know myself.

She’s been watching the ridiculous pace I’ve been keeping this summer, trying to squeeze in way too many events and activities in far too few hours, all the while trying to consistently produce fresh ideas for my blog every few days.

She has seen how in the midst of my blaze of daily activities that I’m often more focused on the end result rather than the journey. More than once she has cringed when she has seen me pay little attention to life’s gorgeous brushstrokes, and even less to its rich details.

Muse has also noticed the crown of hypocrisy I’ve been wearing. While I continually tell my daughter to slow down and enjoy what she is doing while she is doing it, rather than always focusing on what’s next, I continue to blaze on in perpetual motion, always thinking about what I should be doing next.

All of this has made Muse dizzy and cranky, especially as she has watched my mind spin like a hamster wheel. Knowing that blogging only perpetuates my need to be in constant mental motion, she has grown fussy and tired of trying to keep pace.

“If you’re not writing a post, you’re thinking about a post,” she has complained. “If you’re not thinking about a post, you’re worrying about when and what you should post next.”

I tried to ignore her annoying complaints, but Muse finally decided to put her foot down once and for all, the only way she knew how–by simply flitting away and wrapping me in a snug blanket of writer’s block.

Muse did not utter another word. She didn’t need to; her silence was clear: “Creativity needs time to percolate while living life, not just while writing about it. Turn off your computer and follow the advice you always give your daughter. Walk the walk instead of just talking the talk.”

So now you know why I haven’t been writing this past month. I’ve been living large—taking the advice of my wise and silent muse—savoring summer with my friends and family—enjoying life one slow tick on the clock at a time, and reveling in the richness of its myriad details.

Stepping away from my computer has allowed me to…

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Book Review–Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer

Imagine Book Cover Jonah LehrerThe other night I had the privilege of listening to author, Jonah Lehrer, speak about his best-selling book, Imagine: How Creativity Works.

When 31-year old Rhodes Scholar and Wired editor, Lehrer, sauntered onto the stage at UCSB, smiled through his urban-hip geeky glasses, then started spewing insights in his highly-caffeinated manner, I felt like I’d just been hit with a double-espresso shot of inspiration.

Lehrer’s talk flowed just like his book, mixing neuroscience and entertaining anecdotes about famous creative breakthroughs and aha moments.

He shared stories about a wide range of characters—everyone from poets, musicians, and advertising executives to inventors, scientists and educators, deconstructing the process of how we accomplish some of our greatest feats of creativity.

Photo of Jonah Lehrer, author of ImagineWhile Imagine has been blasted in several reviews for scientific inaccuracies (The Guardian and The New York Times, in particular), I find this book irresistible.

None of the information on its own is necessarily groundbreaking, but the way in which Lehrer presents it with his fine writing, connecting the creative dots, and making the science approachable for non-scientific readers, creates a book that is not only delightful, but enlightening.

I knew Imagine was for me when the author kicked off the first chapter describing the genesis of one of Bob Dylan’s best-known songs, Like a Rolling Stone. Dylan, who was burned out at the time—sick of his music and sick of other people’s expectations of him—got on his Triumph motorcycle sans guitar and headed to an empty house in Woodstock. There, after essentially quitting and letting it all go, he ended up creating one of the most inspired pieces of his musical career.

Lehrer hands us one entertaining anecdote after another then peppers it with science, explaining why a particular breakthrough may have occurred. There’s the tale of how masking tape was invented and other common items like Post-it Notes and the Swiffer mop, then there’s the story of how Nike’s famous “Just Do It” logo was created.

 “Every creative journey begins with a problem,” he explains. “It starts with a feeling of frustration, the dull ache of not being able to find the answer. We have worked hard, but we’ve hit the wall. We have no idea what to do next…Thanks to how we’re hardwired, it’s often only at this point, after we’ve stopped searching for the answer, that the answer arrives.”

Haven’t we all experienced this in our creative lives? Just when we’ve nearly thrown in the towel, some nugget of inspiration has fallen into our laps and given us the spark we needed to keep going.

What I like about this book is that Lehrer challenges pre-conceived notions about creativity and tries to demystify the process. He believes we all have the ability to be creative if we cultivate certain thought processes, and if we apply a large dose of grit.

As a writer, I loved being reminded about the grit factor, the need to dig deep and be persistent, putting in hours of hard work—as in the “1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration” notion. Best-selling memoirs don’t just magically happen. They take months, sometimes years of writing and re-writing.

Lehrer quotes neuroscientist, Nancy Andreasen, who says,

“Successful writers are like prizefighters who keep on getting hit but won’t go down. They’ll stick with it until it’s right.”

He also quotes famous graphic designer, Milton Glaser, who has the slogan ART IS WORK chiseled in the glass of his studio:

“There’s no such thing as a creative type. As if creative people can just show up and make stuff up. As if it were that easy. I think people need to be reminded that creativity is a verb, a very time-consuming verb.”

My timing in reading this book has been fascinating, as so many of the ideas have infolded in front of me while watching my husband agonize over the creation of an extremely complex piece of art he’s been working on for the past six months. Each part of the design, each medium he’s used (photography, paint, gouache, collage, paper, metal, ink, pencil), and each decision he’s made has been one of intense thought, piles of research, hours of learning new techniques, and even more hours of being hunched over his art table doing the work. Throughout this process he has hit the wall numerous times, felt like he’s lost his mind in even attempting to construct this concept. But just as it’s driving him mad, a solution comes—in the middle of the night, when he’s walking, when he’s listening to NPR, when he’s chatting with colleagues about random subjects, or when he’s looking at other’s art.

While Imagine isn’t a prescriptive book about how to be more creative, Lehrer does offer  a few strategies about remaining creative over time:

  • Travel—the longer the trip, the better.
  • Embrace your status as an outsider. People who aren’t established and haven’t learned the system, often bring the freshest ideas. They don’t know anything so they aren’t afraid to make mistakes. Their “ignorance” or naïveté, gives them an advantage.
  • Do the hard work then play, and then do it again, until the two are one process.
  • Cultivate new colleagues.
  • Embark on a new career or learn a new medium.
  • Live in a city. Urban centers are hubs of creativity because populations are usually diverse and people continually rub shoulders, sharing ideas. Culture, he says, determines creative output, and it’s through sharing information and making connections that we maximize that output.

A few other fun tidbits culled from this book include: the color blue is said to increase creativity, as does caffeine, daydreaming, and relaxing. That must be why I do some of my best thinking in the backyard, sipping iced lattes while writing under blue skies; and why ideas always pop into my head while I’m relaxing in a long, hot shower or going on a delicious, meandering run. It’s all about the dopamine, baby!

The take-away message from this multifaceted book is that creativity is hard-wired in the human brain and we can enrich that quality in ourselves and in our society. “It’s time to create the kind of culture that won’t hold us back,” Lehrer says, “We have to make it easy to become a genius.”

If you’re looking for a book to inspire and stir your imagination, by all means read Imagine, especially if you love a good behind-the-scenes story about how things are created, and how some of our best creations have come from failures. If you’re searching for precise scientific data about how our creative minds work, this book might frustrate you with its reported errors and generalizations. Head to scientific journals instead.

I rate this book a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars.

What are your thoughts about this book? And what are your thoughts about Lehrer’s recent “self-plagiarism” controversy? Drop your two cents into the comment box. I’d love to know what you think.

©Becky Green Aaronson 2012

Favorite Five Friday: Creativity Boosters

Creative sparks come from many sources. When I’m trying to stir up some inspiration for my work, I always turn to my favorite activities. Here are the top five things that boost my creativity.

Favorite Five Friday Creativity Boosters

What are your favorite five ways of boosting your creativity? Take five minutes or less and drop your Favorite Five in the comment box. Happy Friday everyone!

I’m Walking on Sunshine…

“And don’t it feel good?” Thank you Katrina and the Waves for planting that catchy little tune in my head, and thank you Tina Fariss Barbour for nominating me for the Sunshine Award. As Katrina would sing, “Yeah, if feels good!”

Sunshine blog award graphic

There’s nothing quite like sunshine to make me feel happy and light, and nothing like the blogging community to make me appreciative of its boundless support and generosity.

I’m told the Sunshine Award is given to: “Bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.” 

It gives me great pleasure to receive the Sunshine Award from Tina Fariss Barbour who writes her powerful and honest blog, Bringing Along OCD. I met Tina through a women’s writing group called She Writes, and have since appreciated reading her blog, marveling at her journey with overcoming OCD and depression. By sharing her experiences and all she has learned (and continues to learn), Tina helps hundreds of people every day. I applaud not only her stellar writing, but her courage in sharing her journey, and shining a light on mental health issues which affect millions of people. Check out her blog if you or anybody you know is grappling with OCD, anxiety or depression. You will immediately gain a deeper understanding of what it’s like for those who live with it, and be inspired by how Tina is channeling it. Here’s the link: Bringing Along OCD.

As part of this award, I’m asked to answer ten random questions about myself. So here it goes…

1) What are you reading right now?
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Because my name is mother by Deborah Batterman
The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs by Patricia McConnell (Yep, I’m trying to get inside the head of our new puppy)!

2) What is your favorite place to write?
In my backyard next to our roses and rosemary bush, near the orange tree–usually in my red chaise lounge.

3) Favorite season?
Summer time, summer time…sum sum, summer time!

4) Favorite sound?
Laughter.

5) Favorite gadget
iPod Shuffle (the size of a postage stamp–great for running). Guess I’d be a little lost without my iPhone too, but that might be a good thing.

6) Who inspires you?
People who don’t let their circumstances get in the way of greatness (Tina Fariss Barbour is a good example), and those who chase after their dreams and take risks without worrying about what others think.

7) Beer or wine?
Usually wine, but I also appreciate a nice cold Negra Modelo with a slice of lime once in a while.

8 ) What drives you?
Learning new things, sharing ideas, contributing in some small way.

9) Paisley or polka dots?
Both, but never together.

10) Favorite flower?
It’s a toss-up between tulips and hydrangeas, but then there are roses and camellias and lilies and wildflowers…and…

In the spirit of spreading sunshine to others, I’d like to pass The Sunshine Award along to the following bloggers:

Monica Medina at Monica’s Tangled Web
Debra Eve at Late Bloomer
Melissa at Writing for Daisies
Jayne Martin at  injaynesworld

Congratulations, ladies! Now go out and nominate other “Bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.” And don’t forget to answer ten random questions about yourselves. Happy blogging!

Apple-icious News and a Contest to Celebrate It

Steve and i book coverAfter sixty-five days in Apple’s “review process,” our ibook, Steve & i is finally available for purchase in the iTunes store.

We nearly gave up on Apple, but then remembered our reason for creating this book: to celebrate Steve Jobs and the friendship he and my husband, Jeffrey Aaronson, forged when they were both young and hungry, and to raise money for cancer research by contributing a portion of the sale of each book to prominent cancer institutes.

It’s hard not to chuckle though, wondering what the fine folks at Apple were doing with our book for the past sixty-five days. Keep in mind Steve & i is a little powerhouse 40 page book–including photographs and a video, and it took Amazon and Barnes & Noble less than a week to upload it onto their sites.

Just for fun…because I’m in such a good mood…I thought I’d hold a contest.

Leave a comment with your answer to: “What do you think Apple was doing with our book for the past 65 days?” and your name will automatically be entered into a random drawing for a $10 iTunes gift card. Humor is always appreciated!

Enter by Sunday, June 10th at midnight. The winner will be announced on Monday, June 11th.

In the meantime, we hope you’ll download a copy of the book for $2.99, and if you feel inspired by what you read, please leave a review. Your continued support and kindness is very much appreciated (and will also bring you a bucketload of good karma)!

Here’s the link to the iTunes store: Steve & i: One Photographer’s Improbable Journey with Steve Jobs

In the event you don’t have an iPad or idevice, here are other ways to purchase the book:
Amazon Kindle ebook
Barnes and Noble Nook ebook

Here’s to being inspired, re-living an unique piece of history, and seeing beyond the icon, Steve Jobs, to the complex and charismatic human being who not only “put a ding in the universe,” but did it in a way nobody else ever could.

Photo of Steve Jobs, 1984 inside Apple Computer headquarters, Cupertino, CA

Steve Jobs inside Apple Headquarters, 1984, just prior to the launch of the first Macintosh 128K computer. ©Jeffrey Aaronson

“An absolutely gorgeous, moving and important memoir. Steve Jobs was complicated, sweet, mad, inspirational beyond reason. Thank you for sharing this.”

                                        –Review by Doug Menuez

A Tasty 10-Step Recipe for Creative Success

Ingredients

1 Open Mind
1/2 cup Inspiration
3/4 cup Talent
1 cup Originality
1 cup Authenticity
2 cups Motivation
2 3/4 cups Passion
4 cups Belief
4 cups Commitment
6 cups Perseverance
8 cups Grit
1 lb. Courage

Step One: Preheat imagination by clearing mind of clutter and doubt. Do this with an activity of your choice—run, meditate, take a long shower, relax with a glass of wine…

Step Two: Gather all ingredients, pour into large mixing bowl and stir with abandon. Get messy. Let it fly. Embrace the process, and never think about the cleanup.

Step Three: Season to taste using the textures of your soul. If your creation is bland, add a pinch of spice, a pound of raw emotion and one additional cup of grit. Blend vigorously until flavor is sublime.

Step Four: Knead it and work it, work it, work it.

Step Five: Set aside and let your ideas rise. During this important time, make an effort to engage in other activities, further stirring your creative juices: read, listen to music, go for a hike, surround yourself with art or other creative people.

If necessary repeat steps four and five.

Step Six: Once you are satisfied with the overall flavor and consistency, shape into the form of your choice—one that most expresses your passion and personality.

Step Seven: Bake in creative oven until done. Only you will know at what temperature and how long this will take. During this step, be sure to check it occasionally, but trust your instincts and refrain from continually opening and closing the oven door; that only lets out the heat, and often makes a masterpiece fall. Rather, relax and allow it to reach its natural golden state.

Step Eight: Remove from oven, and set aside to cool.

Step Nine: Once cool, embellish. This is your chance to add your final pinches of panache and swirls of sweetness. Make sure you have sprinkled it sufficiently with the yearnings of your heart, and topped it with the magic of your imagination.

Step Ten: Enjoy and celebrate your creative masterpiece, and most importantly, be sure to SHARE IT.

*Note: This recipe works best when creating purely to impress yourself. If others appreciate it too, then that’s just icing on the cake.

©Becky Green Aaronson   The Art of an Improbable Life   2012

Just Wondering

Can you still call yourself a good mom if the first thing that flies off your tongue is, “BECAUSE I SAID SO,” when your child persistently whines, “Whhyyy, Mom?”

Can you still call yourself a good friend when it takes a month or two longer than it should to mail your dearest friend a birthday card, or worse, when your once-elaborate birthday gestures have been reduced to texts, emails and Facebook messages?

Can you still call yourself an athlete when dragging yourself to the gym once a week is cause for dialing up the Hallelujah Choir?

Can you call yourself one hot, hip mama when you realize the last time you went shopping for something other than a new pair of shorts or flip-flops was two years ago? Or that your collection of tanktops and sweatpants now outnumbers your collection of sexy dresses and va-va-voom blouses.

Can you still call yourself a writer when everything that floats from your mind to your keyboard reads like a giant pile of dog doo? And even after re-writing the same sentence fifty-seven different ways you are know you are in the running for the Grand Prize of the Crap Awards?

Can you still call yourself a domestic goddess when you’re happy that your new puppy has gone exploring under the bed or behind the couch because he makes a really great dust mop? Or when you feel the overwhelming need to do a happy dance because you’ve remembered to put the clothes in the dryer before they sit in the washer too long and you have to re-wash them?

If you answered “ABSO-FRICKIN-LUTELY” to all of the above then you and I must be dear friends. We see eye to eye and dustball to dustball, and we know that life is about bursts of brilliance and moments of jaw-dropping mediocrity. We know that every once in a while we need to take our glasses off so we don’t look too closely at all our faults and imperfections. That way we can celebrate what’s good and quirky and funny about ourselves. And we can laugh—because as we know, laughter is often what sparks those moments of brilliance once again.

HAHAHAHAHA!

Yep, I’m starting to feel more brilliant already! How about you?

Favorite Five Friday: Books

Favorite Five Friday is back. I hope you’ll join in the fun and share your favorite five.
Graphic of Favorite Five Friday Books
I know it’s impossible to narrow down your favorite books, but take five minutes or less and jot down what comes to mind first. I’d love to know what stirs your imagination. Together, perhaps we can create a fabulous reading list. Here are a few dozen other books I’ve enjoyed over the years (in particular order).
  1. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
  2. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
  3. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
  4. The Help, Kathryn Sackett
  5. The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich
  6. The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
  7. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
  8. Palace Walk: The Cairo Trilogy, Naguib Mahfouz
  9. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
  10. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
  11. The History of Love, Nicole Kraus
  12. A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines
  13. Native Son, Richard Wright
  14. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards
  15. The Girls, Lori Lasens
  16. Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortensen
  17. The Book of Bright Ideas, Sandra Kring
  18. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
  19. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
  20. Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt
  21. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
  22. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chavelier
  23. The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
  24. The Three Junes, Julia Glass
  25. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
  26. What is the What, Dave Eggers
  27. The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls
  28. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
  29. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
  30. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
  31. Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom
  32. John Adams, David McCullough
  33. The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
  34. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
  35. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
  36. In Exile from the Land of Snows, John Avedon
  37. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
  38. Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa, Mark Mathabane
  39. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
  40. The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner
  41. A Hope in the Unseen, Ron Suskind
  42. Cutting for Stone
  43. Wild