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This quote from Playbuilding As Qualitative Research was...a sort of AHA moment for me last night, or moved me enough to haunt me long after I read it. So much so, I feel compelled to share it now, 24 hours later. Okay, almost 24 hours later.

One of the most difficult aspects of the collective process to achieve is to tell one's stories while being open to the diverse stories of others....We are all pilgrims on our own journeys, and we can vicariously learn by listening to other pilgrims<. Yes, our stories have merit, but they cannot remain stagnant. In Playbuilding, we revisit them not merely to affirm them but to question them as well. A lecture or performance that preaches preset ideas can be deadly, creating in one's audience resistance rather than a state of listening. If Playbuilding [or any storytelling form for that matter] is to be dialectic, then many stories while change when they encounter the stories of others.....Consequently, the data generated does not give primacy to the accuracy of the past but enters a temporal rift in which former stories intermingle with a present process to include the stories of others that will be reshaped into a future event that will also be reshaped with new participants.

[ Reminds me of fan interaction with material. Each new fan takes something different from it. Writes a new fanfic, which changes the material slightly. Or movie adaptations. Or any derivative work. We take the original story and create variations of it, each commenting on the next, interlocking like puzzle pieces, and we learn from each variation.]

There will be times when one goes through a self-indulgent phase. This is natural and to be expected. We are intricately tied up in the stories we tell ourselves. The danger is to remain there. The juxtaposition of our stories with others enables us to detect our personal framing that obscures parts of our own stories from us. [This is why editors and beta readers are valuable commodities. We need someone to look at our story and see the areas that require clarification or expansion. Or a new interpretation. We need to step outside ourselves and our stories sometimes to see them more clearly. While it is possible to write, read, or watch in a vaccume, with no interaction with others - it is also stagnant. The film Saving Mr. Banks in some respects underlines this - where PL Travers (in the film) learns something new about her own story through Walt Disney.]

We tell them and give them away for others to reconceptualize with care and respect Both our process and the research performance itself will reflect a struggle for meaning rather than a meaning discovered.

The art of story-telling, is in the ability to be open to an exchange of stories or a discussion. Otherwise the story sort of exists in a vacume, dead on arrival. It's like having a child, but never allowing the child to grow up, to change, to evolve.

As a writer, I've always found playing in theater or in the collaborative atmosphere of theater to be instructive and helpful. Didn't realize how much I'd missed it.

Reviews...Saving Mr. Banks and the Practical Paleo

1. Watched the film Saving Mr. Banks last night. It was better than I expected. A lot of the reviewers that I'd read, disparaged the film for not being an accurate reflection of actual events. That Disney came off better than Travers, and that Travers never was happy with the film [even though it made her an extremely wealthy woman if a somewhat whiny and bitter one.] Ironic, considering one of the films themes was how you can lose a story by being a stickler to fine detail. And how to let things go. Whether you liked the film may have a lot to do with how much you a)liked or respected PL Travers position, b) preferred the Mary Poppins novels over the Disney version, and c) despise Disney for well socio-political reasons. I liked the film, but that's partly because a) I thought Travers was a ninny, b) loved the Disney version of Mary Poppins and found the books grim and unreadable, and c) don't really give a fig what Disney's personal politics were. Know very little about Disney, intend to keep it that way. Now, because of the internet, I know far more about Travers than I'd like to - she was NOT a nice person. Rather self-absorbed and nasty, actually. Apparently she ruined two boys lives, by adopting one part of a set of identical twins, and ignoring the other. People were upset this didn't make it into the film. Where they could have put it, I've no idea.

At any rate, on its merits, Saving Mr. Banks is a good film. Emma Thompson is rather splendid in it. And the battle of wills between Travers and Disney is quite fun. As are supporting performances from Paul Giametti, who plays her chauffeur, and the writing crew, including the guy who played Josh on the West Wing. It made me smile and put a tear in my eye.

2. The Practical Paleo - I'm not crazy about the meal plans or the recipes in this book. She doesn't provide much information for the recipes. We don't get cooking times. Or a lot on preparation. Or how to minimize recipes that are clearly set up for a family of four or five. If you have a tiny kitchen, and no space or money for appliances and various food items - then this book may well give you a headache. Or start coveting a huge kitchen. I'm getting tired of cookbooks written for amateur chefs who appear to have lots of free time on their hands and a lot of space.

The meal plans are heavy on the protein and meat/chicken/fish, not so much on veggies. She basically has it set up so that you are eating three huge meals a day. Meat in the morning. At lunch. And at dinner. This would work fine, if I didn't get up at six and have a small stomach. Proving once again, as if I didn't know it already, that we do not live in a one size fits all universe. You can't devise a generalized meal plan for various ailments that will fit everyone who has them. It's not possible.

That said? I tried three recipes on the list. Two of which are guaranteed to sicken any vegans or vegetarians on my flist. So you might want to ignore the first two?

1. ( roast bone marrow )

2. ( Bone Broth )

3. ( Pumpkin Pancakes )

On a brighter note, I appear to have jumped down another dress size. So I'm back to a size 12.
Haven't been there since well 2005/2006 and the ATPO-BTVS-NYC meetup. I'm now the same weight I was when my Facebook pic was taken. Now if only my hair color and face looked the same.