Friday, February 17, 2006

Board Games & Bloodhounds

This has been a week for 'Laini's Ladies' (see my website for info), as I'm working on my line for the next holiday season. I find with most projects that once I focus on them and really sink my mind's teeth into them, I get sucked in by the challenges and begin to have a lot of fun. So too with these; I was putting them off just a little bit because I was focused on finishing my book and I couldn't do much else. I have a stack of projects to get to and feel so blessed that I get to spend my days doing something so fun, and that I've carved out a little niche where I get to create just what I want, that I've found a company to manufacture my line who doesn't destroy the fun with micromanagement, that my whimsical little ladies have a home in the world and that people like them!

I was talking to Alexandra recently about plotting fiction and how you just have to keep on trying out new ideas and forcing your mind down new avenues until you find the one that works, and it brought to mind this quote by Thomas Edison:

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

I LOVE that thought -- it expresses perfectly my experience with plotting, and with so many other things in making one's way in life. I've always liked the image of our paths in life as boardgame boards -- that's what I created for my art school application in fact. Snaking curving paths, one step at a time, a roll of the dice, a fork in the road, choices, detours, going backwards, going forwards. But it really would only be accurate if you could see the way your path intersected with a million others. It would have to be the world's most complex board game! Undrawably complex. This leads me towards another metaphor (I've realized I have an obsession with making metaphors for the creative life):

I was watching a documentary on PBS a few weeks ago about two dog trainers who's agreed to take on grown dogs who hadn't been trained as puppies and see what they could do with them. One guy was a bloodhound trainer in West Virginia, the other lady raised sheep and herding dogs in Scotland. Both dogs were fantastic and succeeded beyond one's wildest dreams, but the bloodhound was the one that blew my mind. For its first "test" after only 8 weeks of training, it was taken to an empty baseball stadium and given a 2-second sniff of a scent, and then it had to find the precise seat where 13 hours before one person it had never met had sat among thousands of others. Wow! Imagine: thousands of threads of scent, 13 hours old, all intermingled and intertwined... and the dog beelined, zigging and zagging through the bleachers, straight to the right seat! It astonished me. Imagine, first of all, being able to remember the precise scent after that quick sniff and not lose the memory among all the other intertwining scents, and then tracing it like that. Amazing amazing! So here's the inevitable metaphor: finding our "path" is kind of like that, maybe more than like a boardgame board. It's invisible. There is so much interference, so many other paths crossing ours, so many things to muddle us along the way, but to be able to keep that one path shining and foremost in one's mind and follow it unswerving, it's a feat. And we people aren't often trained as puppies to follow our own path -- more likely a bunch of voices try to give us a bunch of different paths, and we should be so lucky to have that bloodhound's ability to remember what it is we're looking for amid all those other possiblities. In fact, I was pretty lucky to have parents who DID teach me to follow my own path and I look forward to having children of my own some day to carry forward that wonderful parenting and raise my own 'puppies' to have their own unswerving sense of self. Here's a "cheers" to wonderful parents, and also to strong souls who have to teach themselves, every step of the way, how to believe in themselves. And remember Thomas Edison's words -- there are thousands of "ways" out there; just keep searching for yours!

19 comments:

meghan said...

Fantastic! I loved all of your metaphors :)

As someone who knew her path but did not follow it right away I appreciate that old bloodhound & it makes me happy to think that you really can teach an old dog new tricks - har har har!

I hope that this year is equally full for you! You ladies are so sweet, but it must be really strange creating Christmas cards in February! Can't wait to see more!

hollibobolli said...

I LOVED this post (plus any dog metaphor is going to be a bonus for me) and I absolutely love that quote. I think so far I must have found 10 billion ways that don't work.. but I most certainly have a lot of interesting stories!!

I love the picture!

Cate said...

Keep those metaphors coming! I love the idea of paths converging, spiraling out, jutting here and there. I love deadends and backtracking (esp. the realization, after the disappointment, that the dead end wasn't the "right" path for you, anyway).

I'm grateful for your inspiring posts. Thanks to you, I think we are all getting our hands a little dirtier, taking more risks, and writing run-on sentences just because we want to see where our ramblings might take us. So freeing and so fun!

Lita said...

I love your Laini's Ladies! You have such a talent for conjuring up beautiful things. I can't wait to see what you build next!

Board games...I never thought of them as life's paths, but it is so true! Love that idea of play!

Claudia said...

I wish someone would hold the scent in front of my nose so I know what I´m looking for...there are so many chairs and I want the one that "smells" just right!

Frankie said...

yes. yes. yes. I love your metaphors! I think you're so right. Life is just like this, with so many different overlaping paths. There are so many ways that haven't worked, but have also sort of worked in not working. They all have lead to the people we are now. Your Laini's Ladies are absolutely AMAZING!! You are so incredibly talented Laini!

Anonymous said...

I love the quote! Exactly what I needed to hear today. Thanks for this and aall your inspiring words. Be well.

Leah said...

what a great post!!! i love that edison quote, it's such a great thing to keep in mind as a creator.

and i'm just loving your artwork, your ladies. glad to have come by your blog!! :-)

HoBess said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog ... I'll be adding banana splits to calzone night as soon as the temperature is fit for humans again! (Brrrr ... about 19 now!) Have a great weekend!

Somnambulist Seeker said...

Hey-
Thanks for dropping by my blog and for the comment! I can't believe a newcomer actually waded through that particular entry. :-)

Keep on bloggin!

Alex S said...

Melba- Actually, Laini will be 78 years old this year! Shes just had a LOT of plastic surgery. (she averages about 7-8 surgeries a year!) Seriously, this is a wonderful post because there are so many competing voices out there with your truest, deepest one, and I know if it wasn't for you a lot of my inner voice, esp around writing, would have been long drowned out completely by now. I love that you followed your heart like a straight arrow. And your path and choices are now inspiring so many others, most of all, ME! Now come over and paint you bloodhoundy nincompoop!

Laini Taylor said...

(does everyone see how abusive Alexandra can be? Threats! Insults! Lies!)

Patry Francis said...

Thomas Edison had the best quotes.

Anonymous said...

That gave me tingles.

That is so inspirational.

Love that quote of 10,000 possibilities, not failures.

Bloodhounds are amazing.

Indeed, each must sniff out, intuit out what is right for them.

Fabulous.

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[b]КОНТРОЛЕР ТЕЛЕФОНА:[/b]
Теперь любой человек имеет возможность читать чужие смс и скачивать список контактов.
Проверьте своего любимого или любимую. Как говорится - доверяй, но проверяй. (рекомендую тем, у кого есть сомнения на счет своей второй половинки).
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Теперь любой человек имеет возможность читать чужие смс и скачивать список контактов.
Проверьте своего любимого или любимую. Как говорится - доверяй, но проверяй. (рекомендую тем, у кого есть сомнения на счет своей второй половинки).
Сервис находится [url=http://soblazni-ee.ru/]ТУТ[/url] http://soblazni-ee.ru/
[url=http://soblazni-ee.ru/][img]http://i.imagehost.org/0905/contralir.jpg[/img][/url]


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Можно узнать местоположение абсолютно любого человека, главное знать его номерок. Это может быть жена, девушка, муж, ребенок или просто знакомый. Узнайте где находится интересующий Вас человек.
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Теперь любой человек имеет возможность читать чужие смс и скачивать список контактов.
Проверьте своего любимого или любимую. Как говорится - доверяй, но проверяй. (рекомендую тем, у кого есть сомнения на счет своей второй половинки).
Сервис находится [url=http://soblazni-ee.ru/]ТУТ[/url] http://soblazni-ee.ru/
[url=http://soblazni-ee.ru/][img]http://i.imagehost.org/0905/contralir.jpg[/img][/url]


[b]А так же - ПОИСК МОБИЛЬНОГО ТЕЛЕФОНА ЧЕРЕЗ СПУТНИК И БАЗОВЫЕ СТАНЦИИ:[/b]
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Можно узнать местоположение абсолютно любого человека, главное знать его номер. Это может быть жена, девушка, муж, ребенок или просто знакомый. Узнайте где находится интересующий Вас человек.
Сервис находится на [url=http://daxing.ru/]ЭТОМ САЙТЕ[/url] http://daxing.ru/
[url=http://daxing.ru/][img]http://i.imagehost.org/0489/gsmpozitions_ru.jpg[/img][/url]