Favorites :: Fancy

"Gracious, no." The bear rolled his grizzled head. "Chasing stars is not an appropriate activity for a creature of my age."
Jiji cupped his chin in his hands, and cocked his face toward the blackening sky. "I wondered about that."

They say that parents can't, or won't, choose a favorite child. I may not be a parent, but I can attest that I have plenty of favorites. Favorite foods, ideas, characters, stories, words, phrases, and so forth. Though people don't generally agree with me most of the time.

For instance, a long-time contender for the the title of my favorite food would have to be a dish called Hermit Salad. It's a pasta salad, made with small shell noodles, peas, imitation crab (white fish), and mayonnaise mixed with ranch powder. It's called 'hermit' because the peas often 'hide' in the shells. My mother concocted it a number of years ago as a variation to some obscure recipe; at least, that's how I think it came to be. I wouldn't know. I don't believe that I was there.

Recently, and I was there for this one, I've taken a strong fancy to a new name. Names sometimes precede the character, and it's a long trying-on process with different character types which inevitably causes alterations to the original intentions of the name. This particular name is Jiji Bippins.

Jiji has changed quite a bit since his initial conception, and has even gained a friend through the gracious charity of my roommate. His friend would be Pippin LaRue, and they sail the world in a 'wooden shoe'. Why? Well, because Jiji is looking for his dog Juro, of course.

It's a whimsical, juvenile look at the world. Through constructing Jiji and his circumstances I've been reminded to always look at the magic of things. I'm never more harshly reminded of my own mundane point of view than when I try to remove myself from it. Sometimes it takes a ridiculous fellow like Bippins to pull me away from my incessant logic, and remind me of my love for the impossible dreams in folklore and fancy.

I've always loved legends, mythology, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and other such pieces of culture. They remind us of one way to look at how to understand a question, even if it isn't scientifically feasible.

Genesis (2008)

Introductions :: Flight

There was never a morning, at least none that can be remembered, where I woke up and decided that I wanted to fly. But I've always wanted to.

There's a way to look at the world that makes everything remarkable. Growing up, the tendency to take things for granted will grow, and eclipse this former way of seeing. It's perfectly natural. Associations and generalizations are made in the brain in order to better organize and make sense of our interpretation of the world.

Every time there is something stunningly new there is a flash of remembrance, and a response ever so fleeting that may struggle to be recognized before being taken over by automatic processes that the mind has taken years to construct and refine.

In a transition from my old, comfortable world to the relatively new sphere of University, I was startled to discover things about myself that made me evaluate the way I perceive things.

It wasn't the education that was so different from what I was accustomed to, but the environmental temperature was just enough of a change to remind me of the way I had been observing my world. I left the home and neighborhood I had grown up in and moved startlingly far away from my beloved family. Spending my first semester as a sort of fish stuck in the sky, I had to extend my thoughts out of their comfort zone and into the broader range of possibilities.

When I stopped drowning, I began to fly.

It was merely a change of perspective, and immediately my life began to fall into order. Where I followed before, I began to implement the guidance received, and to leap into my own voids.

This semester sees me as a sort of premature Senior Graphic Design student, with ambitions to graduate in a few short semesters, hopefully armed with a BFA as well as minors in English Literature and Psychology.

Though I'm not sure if I'm ready to leave my bubble of education, I know that, no matter the events to follow, I'll certainly have a great new view to learn from.

If Fish Could Fly (2006)

From my deviantART account, www.hakidasu.deviantart.com