Have you ever read Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried? It tells the story of a platoon of soldiers in the Viet Nam war through the things that they carried in the knapsacks. I used to assign it when I taught Comp & Lit at Lehigh. For one, I wanted my overindulged students to get their minds around something other than their latest hookup. Even more, though, I love the idea that we tell our own stories by the things that we feel we need to have with us every day. So here’s this week’s writing exercise:
Empty your purse, backpack, briefcase, shopping bag and look at what you’ve taken out. Now choose one or two or three or more objects and describe them. Then think about what those objects say about you, your life, your day, your…whatever.
This is an exercise in two things. The first is your powers of description (remember, Do You See What I See). Second is your ability to analyze, to move from the concrete to the abstract, to see the patterns (or lack of same) in things that seem unrelated.
As always, if you want to send me what you’ve done, email it to jane(at)midlifebloggers.com. If you want to share with everyone else, put it into a comment to this post.
Jane Gassner
Comments on this entry are closed.