Pinning Down Certain Truths
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carry:
"By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, like the night in the sh-t field [sic], and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain."
Telling stories. Objectify your own experience. Pin down certain truths. Wake up others. Clarify and explain. Indeed.
Recently 'kid' blogger (read: designer, thinker, student, author, idea-force, et al) Ethan Bodnar posted a shot of his gear (above right) in the "things I carry" Flickr meme. 5,390 additions so far! Found it utterly fascinating. Thought it a curiously striking "autobiography artifact" of sorts. Great way to get the vibe of a person. Surprises and confirmations, both. Wondered if my soon-to-be students would enjoy a quick early-year project like this. What it might spark over time as well.
Started thinking about the things I carry. Or more accurately, what I keep around me when I think, daydream, work, research, Twit, and blog. Earlier today I added a shot of my home office to my Flickr account. Added a few notes. Wondered what it said -- and didn't say -- about me, my working/thinking/learning style, my whatever. Here's what I shot, but the notes/details are found at this link if you want to drill down:
Mentioned it casually on Twitter soon after. Sort of a visual haiku akin to our 140-character message landscape. Asked the Twitterverse:
"what does YOUR home office look like? intentional layout or random? here's mine..."
Was curious what others -- edubloggers and the like -- had around them each time they sat down at their "home office" (whatever that might be). For the last year, my home office was a combination of a renovated space in my garage and my kitchen table, to various degrees of git-r-done success. Just recently opted for a corner of a spare bedroom once we realized Karla was pregnant with Beckett-to-be. Feeling like we have a good mix finally. Hopefully a good supplement to life at school this fall.
Happy to see that Chris Lehmann followed soon after with a two-shot of his office (part 1, part 2). Then realized that back this winter that our favorite Scotsman/edublogger Ewan McIntosh had made a similar request after sharing his own two-shot of his edublogger home office (part 1, part 2, part 3 with a Guiness smile) which I somehow missed the first time around back in Jan 07. Others followed, too. Miles Berry has one that clearly trumps mine in terms of looking like a grown-up space. Ferguson Jones' office gets high praise from me for being intentional and organized; envious here! Glad that some invisible thread of connection came back to the surface. And there are others, too. Check out "edublogger office" as a Flickr tag. Hopefully the collection will grow in time, too. John Pederson mentioned via Twitter tonight that his "submission comes tomorrow." Keep an eye out. Add your own. Nudge others to do so as well.
And while you're at it, check out what Ethan added (in detail) to the "things I carry" Flickr meme. Also a great visual artifact of our lives to let spin around your noggin'.
And while you're at it, check out (again or for the first time) his "iPhone the book" project he just published. And maybe he'll even consider putting together a little book project showcasing blogger home offices if he has any free time on his calendar (he smiles).
That damn Twitter and my blog move distracted me from the bigger message.
"The Things They Carried" is one of < 5 books that I've read multiple times. It's incredible.
You just set the agenda for my Sunday. :)
Posted by:John Pederson | July 29, 2007 at 01:44 AM
No mention of me? (Just kidding) By the way, thanks for stealing the The Things They Carried tie-in... After all, I did post it first:
http://myfla.ws/blog/2007/07/25/the-things-i-carried/
(Although you went far more into it than me)
Oh, and I posted my home office a while back:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arthuserea/477720460/
Posted by:Arthus Erea | July 29, 2007 at 06:16 PM
Man, Arthus, you're anxious for a plug aren't ya? (he smiles). The Things They Carried reference is more literature than Flickr, but I enjoyed seeing what you posted via photospace. Very cool.
John -- Hey, man...where's the post? Can't wait to read it! Maybe we can kick off a book-reading club, you and I.
Cheers to you both -- Christian
Posted by:Christian Long | July 31, 2007 at 01:45 PM