Random web site to check out: List of neologisms on The Simpsons

So this weekend was interesting. Saturday I actually got up at a reasonable hour (perhaps even early for a weekend) and went to a few different Sabbath morning activities. Of particular interest was a presentation by my Chemistry lecturer Dr. Rittenhouse. He talked about his trip this past summer to Peru as part of a small mountaineering group. Rittenhouse has amazing talent at public speaking - very soft, methodical, precise, and well executed. Not full of emotional phrases or vast hand-waving gestures. And yet I couldn't help but be inspired by his passion for mountaineering.

The whole idea of taking yourself away from the routines of life and pouring your energy, focus, and soul into a single purpose - climbing a mountain - seems like a very soul enriching activity... The trust and companionship made with fellow climbers is uncommon in relationships... The beauty of the vast earth we live on - clear and untainted when viewed from the highest altitudes where humans haven't yet made an ugly mark... He showed us incredible things. The photos were nice, but it was his descriptions and depth in his voice that made it clear how powerful the experience really was.

So I want to go climb mountains in Peru some day. Before that, I will need to build up years of experience climbing other mountains, but it seems a worthwhile pursuit.

Also of interest. I just finished reading "My Mentor" by Alec Wilkinson. It is required reading for my Honours College Writing, but I really found myself sinking into the book - something I haven't done in ages. I've also started writing in the margins and underlining - activities I always dreaded and despised - and I've actually found that they let me engage the contents of the book on a whole new level. It also makes finding those meaningful quotes a lot easier to find when flipping through the book ;)

The book describes the mentorship that Wilkinson experienced under William Maxwell - one of the greatest editors and novelists of the 20th century. A great many quotes and ideas stand out and I will try to remember to sprinkle them throughout future posts whether they really fit the subject or not. For starters:

"It is hard to be an original person, an individual. No one cares for it, really. Very few people will congratulate you on the accomplishment. At close hand a truly original person is almost always disturbing. Indulgent and self-consciously outrageous behavior, show business boy and girl behavior - attitudes and mannerisms summoned in the attempt to bring notice to a negligible personality - is not the same as being original, because it is necessarily in response to something. A reaction to someone else's point of view...." - p 44

"He was fond of a remark by the critic John Hall Wheelock that writing involves the imposition of a line of words on a line of feeling." - p 99