Looking for something that moves

Thanks for all the great feedback on yesterday's post.


Mary Ann's comment about how women map things out (remember where the food is kept), and men are just looking for something that moves--it's not so facetious. There are studies about how vision works, and how the brain works, and how different animals see things differently. Part of our vision alerts to contrasts in tone, and part to color. Some animals do indeed only see "something that moves". 

I saw a crow chasing a squirrel a couple of weeks ago, along the ground near the Skytrain. The squirrel got to the base of a tree, and then stopped, very still. I could still see the squirrel as obvious as anything up against the base of the tree trunk. But the crow stopped and looked around, suddenly lost. The squirrel had stopped moving, and had become invisible.

Some of our children, and more sons, in particular, have a hard time in school because they are too "ADHD", noticing anything that moves, and chasing after distractions. Take those same children out into the wilderness, and watch how those same skills could feed your family, could contribute to group survival. Sitting in the front of a canoe, or hiking in front of the group, my son would always be the first one to spot a river otter or a deer. A boy with darting movements could spear a lizard with a stick in the old days--this image came from a book about Australian aboriginals we looked at when the kids were little. I regretted that in our society we have so few places where the males of our species can use these innate hunting skills. The other day at the church camp on Sasamat Lake, some parents were complaining that kids were playing with "foam swords". What I noticed were the kids with sticks. It's natural for a kid to pick up a stick and want to hunt. Someone else muttered something sarcastic about "teaching kids to play with lighters" when a boy was asked to light the chalice for the worship service.

I think it's a good idea to teach our young these skills--how to use a stick wisely and to help the group; how to start a fire and control the flames. If they don't learn how to use our human tools safely, later in life they can really get in trouble. Like with guns, over-powerful fire-sticks. In the same vein, it's a good idea to teach them about edible plants, and how to shop economically, and how not to get run over by cars and trains. Some families live in fear, not letting their kids eat wild berries, not letting them cross the street by themselves, driving them everywhere and never letting them learn the landscape.

It's definitely difficult as a parent to let kids learn some things the hard way. But back to reading and writing, books can teach all of us some of these lessons without having to experience certain difficulties ourselves. Children's books are full of incidents and resolutions to problems, and really are educational, so long as we get them to read some of the more realistic stories (Bobbsey Twins, Swallows and Amazons) along with the magical fantasies (Harry Potter, etc.).

Finally, if we look at another meaning of "something that moves", that is a goal for writing compelling scenes. The "moving quality" might be emotional for some people and physical for others, or a combination. Probably what makes a writer like Nicholas Sparks so popular is that he combines both the anima and the animus in the action, appealing to both men and women. 

So, go ahead and write about something that moves.

Jennifer Getsinger
June 10, 2014