A reading list for you

For those of you who are unaware, I am a journalism student.

This me, at 17, imagining myself as a future journalist. Sweet, isn't it? I've got my collared shirt and my glasses and my paper and my pen and I thought I was going to change the world one question at a time.

Why did I want to be a journalist? Because I wanted to write. Because I liked stories. My mom is a writer. My grandpa is a writer. My dad, even, was a music journalist in Warsaw, Poland, because he liked music and the influence he could inspire with a few words about melodic wonder and guitar shreds.

At first, when I was young, I liked to make up stories. The first story on record is about the Lima Bean Fish, the fish who are red and purple and green and orange and sparkly and blue and red again, and they are called Lima Bean Fish so that they can be secret, because no one likes lima beans. I told this story to our family friend, Nancy, in the Leech Lake cabin, Leech Lake, Minnesota, while my brother and grandmother skated across the lake in the antique speedboat and fished for real fish, not fish from their sister/granddaughter's imagination. Nancy liked to make spaghetti with fresh vegetables from her Iowa garden. I remember the zucchini triangles zipping and popping in the frying pan as I told her this story. I swear I remember that part of the real-life story.

That was me, young.

Then, I started meeting people outside of my family and realized that I found people interesting. Fascinating, strange, confusing, mundane, funny, bizarre, mysterious, compelling, stimulating, bad, good, great, evil, breathtakingly beautiful, etc. I found people to be all of these things. And I realized that their stories were the most important.

You don't make up people's stories, I taught myself, again young. You just listen to them and then grant them life on paper, with magic like a painter, like Matisse, like Mary Cassatt, like Lady Aiko.

How can I do that?

Now is now. And I have a tattoo on the back of my neck that says "Forever Young." For reasons that I won't distract myself or you with, but one reason is to remind myself of the organic pull to investigate the Lima Bean Fish, the lonely, beautiful fish of my childhood imagination. Don't forget about humanity behind every thought.

So, now, for an analysis. A media analysis. What do you read every day? What "news" do you look for? Are you digesting, or skimming, or analyzing, or gasp! believing everything you read? Do you look for yourself in the "news"? Do you look into the world, or just into your neighborhood? Do you really care?

I have to be honest. Again. I'm writing this self-reflective post because I'm hitting another unexpected tidal wave, and it's making me feel a bit seasick. I'm trying to organize my thoughts. I'm trying to document every memory of my experiences in Rwanda before the memories get jumbled in all the new stuff, the new stimulations, like sticky rubber bands in a spoon drawer. There's a little bit of panic as I do this. Because I don't want to forget. I'm not going to forget. But there's still that panic -- I don't want to forget.

I'm gathering.

In the meantime, I've been reading some interesting articles, articles that challenge me to place myself within the words, concepts and realities of the subject matter.

There's this GOOD article about the importance of art in education, which brought me back to Avenir, and the importance of each woman's connection to her art. Creation, for the Avenir women, is therapeutic, is healing. Creation, on a local level, can also be this.

Then I found this New York Times article about travel, which quotes George Steiner: "Human beings need to learn to be each other's guests on this small planet." Just a lovely read.

Npr.org is my internet homepage, and a couple days ago, I was attracted to this article that introduced the idea of a new generation, my respected generation, that has a new vision for the American Dream and a new idea about fate: "They understand this idea of a shared fate, or a linked fate. That somehow, what happens to somebody in Mumbai may have an effect on me in West Lost Angeles." I can relate.

Now, back to my questions regarding media analysis. How do we, as a national and international community, allow complexities to surface? What is privilege and what is power? These questions about humanity occupy my mind daily. This article on Co.EXIST's website asks the same questions.

Happy reading.

Yanna