Lightness revisited

Sam had asked me to find an image for lightness. I wanted to continue with the idea I had from the beginning, the idea that Calvino had with lifting the weight of the world off your shoulders. The idea that the weight of the world is settling on all of us and it makes us heavy writers, as well as making our life heavy. This is something I am experiencing currently, and so I find it a lot easier to write on, then I did before.

One of Calvino's missions in life was to put lightness into not only his writing, but into people, cities and obviously language itself. One of the way he suggested this happening, is by speaking about the weight we have all felt at sometime on our shoulders. When we feel this weight, it affects not only our personal lives, but our writing. The language that we use is also much heavier, we have a tendency to use words when stressed that wouldn't be used when we're in a comfortable and more relaxed state.

The reason I chose this image, was because not only of the light that is coming through the trees, but also the bird. Calvino uses the bird in the lecture speaking of direction. We talked about how the bird is light as a feather, but can also has a sense of direction and a purpose. How a feather, though it is light, doesn't have the direction that the bird has. This picture speaks to the bird aspect.

Also, the look on the woman's face in the photo. Though she looks upset, her body language also looks much more relaxed and is in an isolated area with only the bird.

When I think of lightness, I think of a book that I've read to the kids I babysit and also one I read as a child. The book Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown. When you read this book before you go to bed, a certain lightness comes over you. Saying Goodnight to all the things in your day and it makes you smile. I'm sure this isn't the kind of literature that Calvino was really thinking of, but it will always work for me.

Also, I like the innocence in the book, which to me is a reflection of lightnes. When you don't really have all the stress and worry of a grown up, your life is much lighter and much more free. You have the ability to imagine and create with no repercussions or adult hold backs. How many of us as a child haven't, at some point, said Goodnight to a stuffed animal or to something in our room? Or after Toy Story, wondered if our toys came to life when we were gone or after we fell asleep? This is the lightness reflected in almost all children's books.