CHARACTER

A series of essays.....

 

A HOME'S CHARACTER CAN REFLECT THE CHARACTER

OF THOSE WHO RESIDE THERE

.....as seen through my eyes!





By: Jacqueline E. Hughes


It's nearly possible to feel its texture, estimate its weight, and recognize its behavior by simply looking at the written word itself: Character. The sight of it conjures up many different emotions, awakens the imagination and, literally, takes us on the ride of a lifetime.

Character, a single distinct conceptual unit of language, bursting with multitudes of meaning and innuendo, packing a punch and consistently evolving along the way. Developing, changing, and growing daily, our moral strength and integrity is seasoned by the sheer elements that surround us. It can be as illusive as an 'invisible cloak' wrapping us within its deceptive folds, especially in our youth, yet as strong and spiritual as multicolored banners comprised of Tranquility, Peace, and Love blowing softly in the breeze that gently envelopes us.

We are defined by our character. As a young adult, we can be swept up by the competitiveness and influences of modern technology that tug upon our desire to fit in, be popular, and drive us to succeed in this highly aggressive and 'Me' oriented existence. Welcome to the Fame Culture with its theme of 'selfies' and 'reality programming' setting the daily pace. 

We have turned the camera on ourselves as we shift the selfie stick back and forth in an attempt to capture that perfect shot with our own face in the foreground......life, beauty, nature, often lost, in the background. The epitome of a self-centered existence that is charmed by the acknowledgement of others to the point of instant glory due to the over-exposure of our own presence. Warranted?....., most likely, not. A 'Kardashian' influence highlighted by twenty-nine million Instagram views surrounding us in a fleeting aura of false love and envious adoration. 

Time. It takes time. It requires maturity. In time, many of us will acquire the maturity to expose our selfishness and throw down the gauntlet of challenge by turning the camera around until we come face-to-face with the many characters that comprise this astonishing world we live in. 

We are all characters playing out our specific roles as in books, movies, politics, marriages, parenting, while 'treading the boards' of this vast stage called life! Stage left, stage right, downstage as the spotlight defines our features...our souls, for all to behold during this grand performance with the backdrop neatly painted by our own hands. Dipping the brush into a rainbow of lush colors, our performance is enhanced by each stroke upon the canvas and bright stage lights shine on and reflect the joy we feel. Muted shades of gray reduce the intensity of our contentment; subdue and soften while restraining the sound of color and light.

Strategically, others are allowed into our personal world to share and offer their particular perspective and attitude regarding our character. A description of a person's attributes, traits, or abilities flow like molten lava creating a miraculous new landscape from which each co-worker, friend, or neighbor's point of view can formulate and reference our character: Kind, hardworking, capable.....dependable. An employer's dream!

Yet, something inside of us seeks out, even reveres, those of dubious character, umbrageous souls who taunt and disrupt us by offering a life we could only hint at or speculate about before their introduction, possibly, from a book, film, or play. These perfect antagonists allow us to be beautiful or rich, wicked or immoral while gleaning vicarious pleasure from a boxing match of competition and conflict, vigorously cheering on the 'bad guy' while living a mundane existence in the real world. We might marry the trustworthy, kind man, but we secretly admire the dangers surrounding the Bad Boy persona.

Character can be determined by the sugar, spice, and grit that dusts our life with its fine powder coating whether we live on top of a mountain, within a bustling city, or the more laid-back realm of a rural existence. Life is a journey into one's self. What seasonings we choose to use in order to bring zest or interest into our life is strictly up to us. 

Being a kind, loving person can be a major benefit when it comes to strengthening a resourceful, benevolent character.

Love can and should be the greatest foundation or starting point when beginning our long journey. Hopefully, it has been shared and passed down to us by those we are close to and who offer us loving examples to live by. As we travel along the road, building character and stretching our imagination, we should ask ourselves if we have our 'loves' in order. Are we spending our time and energy on our highest love, our values and passion, before the journey into one's self reaches its end?

As time passes, we should learn the importance of humility, sympathy, tranquility, peace, respect, compassion, and Love, above all else......! This is a timeless list that's meant to strengthen our character while placing our lives, our loves, in proper order.

Author's Note: This essay was first published in "Moving On....2016" on January 28, 2016. I believe that today, October 26, 2017, its message is as strong and resolute as when first written, if not more so.   


Copyright © 2017 by Jacqueline E. Hughes
All rights reserved

"I WANT TO LIVE LIKE MUSIC SOUNDS."

A series of essays.....

Author, Eva Ibbotson

.....as seen through my eyes!



By: Jacqueline E. Hughes

First of all, I would just like to say how much I love what I do! 

The Austrian born author, Eva Ibbotson, is the perfect example as to why so many of us rise early in the morning, words swirling around in our heads like iridescent butterflies, with so many ideas begging to be captured on the tiny little screen of an iPad!  Well, in my case an iPad, anyway.

Having two young, seven-year-old granddaughters who are voracious readers, it is interesting that their age group has fallen into what I refer to as the 'crack of oblivion' when it comes to the major and lucrative promotion of the Harry Potter books written by J.K. Rowling.  That's not to say that they won't be influenced by them in the near future considering the Harry Potter series targets the YA, or young adult, niche.  I think they just got lost in the shuffle, for now.

I do recall the observation of literary critics who had found similarities between Ibbotson's "Platform 13" in her book entitled The Secret Platform 13 published in 1994 and J.K. Rowling's "Platform 9 3/4" in her Harry Potter book series from 1997, both located at King's Cross Station in London.  According to Wikipedia, the journalist, Amanda Craig, has written about these similarities.  "Ibbotson would seem to have a good case for claiming plagiarism......, but unlike the American author, Nancy Stouffer, currently suing Ms. Rowling, Ibbotson says she would, 'Like to shake (Rowling) by the hand.  I think we all borrow from each other as writers.' "

My point here is to recognize the heartwarming character of this interesting individual and author, as she publicly comes to terms with life, career and human nature.  She not only recognizes the propensity of writers to 'borrow' from one another (chalking it up as a supreme compliment, perhaps), but offers her congratulations to Rowling for a job well done!


Eva Ibbotson, born Eva Marie Charlotte Michelle Wiesner, in Vienna, Austria in 1925, was the daughter of non-practicing Jewish parents.  Her father, a physician who pioneered human infertility treatment and her mother, a novelist and playwright, were divorced when Eva was only three.  Her mother went to Paris in 1933 and left when Hitler banned her work.  Eventually settling in North London, she sent for her daughter along with other family members who ultimately avoided the worst of the Nazi regime.  The experience of fleeing Vienna was a strong thread throughout Eva's life and work, according to Wikipedia.  Eva passed away on October 20, 2010 at the age of eighty-five after editing the proofs of her new children's book, One Dog And His Boy, and beginning another ghost story, The Abominables, published posthumously in 2012.

Known for her writing of children's fantasy novels and historical fiction, her career took off when she was nearly forty-five years old and spanned from 1965 through 2010. 

Logging-in more than a dozen books for children, they include Which Witch?, The Secret of Platform 13, Dial-A-Ghost and Journey to the River Sea.  The latter was written in memory of her late husband, Alan Ibbotson, a former naturalist and professor at Cambridge University.  You may recall that President Obama made a surprise visit to the independent bookstore, Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City back in 2010 where he picked up a copy of Journey to the River Sea for his daughters.

President Obama at Prairie Lights Books

As an author, grandmother and avid reader.....I know what is in store for me.  Once I begin reading the novels of Eva Ibbotson, I totally expect to love them completely and will want to read all of them!  Recently, a blogger reviewing Journey to the River Sea and discovering Ibbotson's books for the first time exclaimed, "I am considering tracking down a copy of every one of her books, building a fort, and hiding out there to read and read and read until I have devoured Eva Ibbotson's entire collection.  I want to hand out copies of Journey to the River Sea to every child I meet!  And probably a few adults, too! I loved it that much."  Oh boy!!  I am in for the long haul.....I can just feel it!

My journey into the life of this interesting female author began because of a quote I had seen online that struck me as one of the best 'writing prompts' I've seen in a long while.  Spoken by her character, Ruth, in the novel, The Morning Gift, Eva Ibbotson wrote, "I want to live like music sounds."  There's something quite magical in this statement.  How does this interesting quote affect you?  Are you conjuring up all sorts of pictures in your head right now like I am?  From the four most recognized notes (Big Bang Introduction) of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 to the haunting dirge called A Prayer sung by Madeleine Peyroux from her album Dreamland.....and all of that 'life' filling in the huge area in between, our lives are surrounded by the sounds, noise and notes that swirl and collect around us every moment of our existence! 

Does our arm merely rise into the air as we wave hello to a friend or does it drift upwards to hang above us while a 'blues note' floats along an invisible breeze until we catch it in the smooth palm of our hand?  I hear lullabies playing in a baby's room and feel the reassurance of a calm, sleep filled night as 'gentleness' is carried along on puffs of air to be inhaled as innocent breaths, and eyes begin to softly close....close.  Drum solos executed by the likes of John Bonham, Neil Peart, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich boom, bang and clatter until our hearts burst from the cadence and rhythms of anticipated fear, extreme adventure, lust for life....!!

Can you sit still as the music plays?  I cannot.  I will not!

For her entire life, Eva Ibbotson had said she disliked "....financial greed and lust for power" and often created antagonists in her books who have these characteristics.  Certainly this contributes to her reaction of the literary critics with regard to similarities found in the J.K. Rowling's books. 

Even though her more recent collections feature writing for children, Ibbotson was also noted for several works of fiction for adults.  Two of her acclaimed books are set in Europe at the time of World War II and reflect her experience of the time: The Morning Gift (1993) and A Song For Summer (1997).

While researching additional quotes attributed to the many characters  found in her numerous works of fiction, I discovered how they serve to delight the senses and entertain the mind, as well.  I want to share some of them with you and deservedly give credit to meetville.com for such pretty packaging, or not!?!


'A Countess Below Stairs'



'The Star of Kazan'

 

Preview Magazine interviewed Eva in the Fall of 2001 and the results of this interview reinforced everything I had been feeling about this amazing Lady!  Passionate, Modest, Sensitive, Talented and Caring.....Words that describe Eva Ibbotson completely.

What were you doing when you found out that your first book was going to be published? "Cooking supper for my husband and children. My agent phoned and I shouted and we all danced about, except my husband who saw to it that the sauce did not burn."
What did you treat yourself to afterwards?  "My first money as a writer came from a short story in a magazine.  It was a very small sum, and I bought Mars Bars for everybody in the family."

'The Dragonfly Pool'

'A Countess Below Stairs'

A wife, mother of four and award winning author, Eva Ibbotson's humble life was a lesson of Love for all of us.  Even though its roots were based in divorce, unhappiness and impending war in Europe or, because of ALL the above, the Guardian, publishing her story upon her passing in 2010, proclaimed her "A self-confessed 'happy endings freak.'  She expressed some bemusement at trends for darker children's fiction and her books always reassured young readers that good would be rewarded and that spoilt brats and greedy grown-ups would get their comeuppance."

Taking cues from her character, Ruth, in The Morning Gift, I truly believe that Eva Ibbotson lived her life like music sounds....

Copyright © 2015 By Jacqueline E. Hughes
All rights reserved

MOM...PLEASE DO NOT SCREAM!!

Blog: Life...

~~CAPS LOCK KEY IN PLAIN SIGHT~~

.....seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes




Admittedly, never having been the shy-one among family, friends or strangers, I have often found myself smack in the middle of one controversy or another because of it.  And, oops!!  I think I did it again!

Let's see....demonstrative, highly emotional, too caring (Really?  Can anyone care too much?), obsessive (in a good way!) and, passionate.  All of the above would be the correct answer.  What if I substituted words for those above like....affectionate, moved, compassionate, preoccupied and, intensely loving?  These words do take some of the tempestuousness out of a fiery personality and lend a certain softness to the mix. 

Accepting constructive criticism through the analysis and judgement of others certainly is a positive step in the right direction.  When this evaluation comes from someone you respect and love dearly, you perk-up and listen.  At least, you should.  They only have good intentions at heart.

"Mom....please do not scream!!"  What?  As far as I knew, my 'Skype voice' this morning was sounding reasonable and low-keyed.  And then my youngest child, herself a loving Mother of a six-year-old and twins who are two, explained what she meant. 

"You have all-capped the intro to your blog again!!  It's as though you're screaming at us to open it up and read it rather than gently asking us to.  That's not what you're after, right?" 

She was absolutely right, screaming was never my intention at all.  My daughter makes a very good point.  And, the crazy bit is that this isn't the first time she's told me about this habit of mine.  Some habits are difficult to break!

So, I vow to curb my all-capitalization format as much as possible.  Unless, of course, I really do want to scream in order to emphasize a point I'm making or allow a character in one of my stories to vent or be  scared out of their minds!!!  I will be more of a Cathy Marie Buchanan type rather than Stephen King when it comes to superlatives and exaggeration.  I do see her point...

Thank you, Sweetheart, yet again.  I appreciate and fully understand your criticism.  All I have to do now is restrain my enthusiasm, steer clear of the 'Caps Lock' key and apologize to all of you for raising my voice far too often.