Moving on... I am currently listening to a book on CD describing a portion of the life of Marilyn Monroe, from the viewpoint of a young man who worked with her during the filming of "The Prince and the Showgirl." Never having learned much before about Ms. Monroe, I am interested in learning about her. Simultaneously, I am feeling drawn to learn more and more about this woman with seemingly two vastly different lives; one visible to her public; her fans - and the other lived inside her home, inside her self, inside her own darkness.
Further appreciating my fascination with MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses... search and find any topic you could possibly be interested in learning about... and they're FREE!), I am currently in a course on futurelearn.com called "Start Writing Fiction." This is a great course. To start, we were taught to observe people and make notes for potential development into characters in our works of fiction. I have made notes on a few people whom I've encountered but have found nothing that really grabbed me...
...UNTIL MARILYN!! This woman's character makes me increasingly curious. Thinking about what I've learned about her personality and her life, a story line has begun growing in my mind. I feel really good about this idea and hope it truly becomes a written work, put down on paper.
My current "Start Writing Fiction" MOOC discusses researching the type of person your potential character is, what their personality quirks are, what their struggles are, etc. So I have Googled Marilyn Monroe and have found endless lists of websites boasting biographical information on her and about her life.
And... most of the websites have pretty much the same information to share.
It's like when politicians get a set of "talking points" on a current issue. Website after website tells the same set of stories about Marilyn. Born Norma Jeane... her childhood... her three marriages... her start in the world of modeling and then movies... her struggles... her death...
...and that's it.
How sad, how very sad. This was a PERSON... sure, with talents and looks and fans all over the world... but a HUMAN, with feelings and complexities and dreams and favorite songs and happy memories and tears and childhood friends and... a whole lot of other things, details, that have been edited out. Summed up, until one woman's entire life can be stated and re-stated in the course of a few similar paragraphs on website after website.
It just made me think.
I hope my life is never summed up so succinctly.
So I will live my own life, one day after the next, making my mark in as many places and in as many ways as possible. And I will make effort to notice and learn the details about other people, about other people's lives.
I once had a boss in an escrow office who instilled in me how important it was to "document, document, document..." every thing I did, every step I took, and every detail I covered. Though I was never crazy about that boss, the PRINCIPLE she taught me has always stuck with me.
So maybe that's something I need to do. Since I love so much to write, and to learn about people. To document, document, document. And ensure that people's truths are preserved and remembered.
Because all God's children deserve to be remembered. Because there is something special and unique inside every one of us, and that needs to be kept as sacred. Because every one of us is truly special to our Creator. I want to show God's love to people by putting down in words what He has put down in their hearts.
