Blog 2722 – 04.12.2023
What Matters Most Is What You See Yourself
This is now the second time that I have used the two-hundred and ninety-six recordings of children’s book readings (David Reads Children’s Books) as inspirations for my daily blogs. Writers draw their inspiration from their own life experiences, those of others, the songs that serve as the soundtracks of our lives, and many other sources as well.
I once took a correspondence course in writing books for children, but decided that I wanted to write for a more mature audience. While taking journalism in high school I learned that most newspapers articles were written for people with barely more than a grade school education and with a very limited vocabulary.
Jesus being a wise teacher and trying to reach mainly an uneducated audience couched even his deepest teachings in stories and metaphors. He loved children and appealed to the child in all of us.
Today’s story is about a boy named Harold and the world he creates with his purple crayon. The best writers and illustrators leave room for their reader’s imaginations, hoping that they read between the lines, fill-out out the story, and imagine the appropriate coloring with shades of meaning.
When asked the meaning behind a particular song the singer/songwriter Bob Dylan says that he prefers to let his listeners find their own meanings in his songs. An artist’s ego often sabotages his or her creativity by getting too caught up in some deep meaning or message that he or she thinks it is so important to convey. I try to remind myself that each of these blogs is meant to be like a note in a bottle cast into the great sea called internet, just an I love you note to whoever finds it and reads it. I have no special insights, great wisdom, or deep meanings to share. As the main character in John Irving’s book A Wife For A Year later made into a movie called A Door In The Floor after one of the children’s books he wrote and illustrated, humbly says when he is praised for his talent, “I just write for children and I like to draw.”
Draw whatever conclusions you may and meaning from my word pictures. My only hope is that you find them encouraging, and entertaining if not all that enlightening. To me a writer/singer/songwriter has hit the mark when a reader or listener thinks in response “I love you too.”
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rLMB1oflU0tQwIh2LQj50byTiFsLMnPZ/view?usp=drivesdk
Harold And The Purple Crayon
Boyzone – No Matter What (Official Music Video)
theencouragingword 