dare to be dreadful

I don't know who said that. But it's really good and it's my latest motto, especially when it comes to writing. To help combat that enemy that is always creeping up on you trying to stop you live your life (or write your story)--the deadly perfectionism.

And here's what some clever people had to say about it:

"Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good." William Faulkner (1897-1962)

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." G K Chesterton (1874-1936) (seen above looking rather imposing and very much like someone not to be messed with -- so who am I to argue?)

Young children, of course, don't worry about any such nonsense. They just run outside and play.

I guess they know that's their parents' job--to take care of them. So they're free to run and play. Hmm. I guess maybe I don't need to worry, either... "Your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things..."

OK. Forget perfect. Time to go and play...

handbag toast

Here's Ellie (aka The Beautiful Princess Eleanor) with her lovely Handbag Toast she made one morning.

It's certainly quite the most Fashionable Fabulous Famous Toast I've ever seen.

What a shame to eat it. And not walk about with it on your arm being a lady and wondering where to go.

Actually, I don't see why not. When you're at your next Important Meeting to discuss Important Things with Important People, you might well consider taking along your Handbag Toast to keep things unusual and surprising. What could be the harm? It would certainly keep everyone on their toes and off balance which always works to your advantage.

(So long as it doesn't rain because then of course you'd have Handbag Soggy Toast on your hands and that, as everyone knows, never helped anyone.)

angels

"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly."
G K Chesterton

Here's to going lightly through the day and seeing where the wind will carry us...

(photo: an Angel on a grave at Castle Ashby)

every child is an artist

Been thinking about how young children paint. And how they so naturally do what as a grown up it's so desparately hard to do. I love what Picasso said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."

So cool. And yet another reason to become like a child...

Here's another great quote:

“Unlike in music, there are no child prodigies in painting. What people regard as premature genius is the genius of childhood. It gradually disappears as they get older. It is possible for such a child to become a real painter one day, perhaps even a great painter. But he would have to start right from the beginning. So far as I am concerned, I did not have that genius. My first drawings could never have been shown at an exhibition of children’s drawings. I lacked the clumsiness of a child, his naivety. I made academic drawings at the age of seven, the minute precision of which frightened me.” Picasso (1881-1973)

Storybook Bible Challenge!

Dan Cruver (seen above reading to his family from a favorite book) has started a challenge on his blog--how many photos can he collect of parents reading The Jesus Storybook Bible to their children? Can you help? He already has quite a few there, it'd be fun to get some more! If you want to join in the fun click here for his email address and to send along the photo... alternatively send to me and I can forward to him and post them here, too!

30 million cups of tea

Just heard about a campaign afoot to make a triangle of Manhattan forever England... Little Britain in The Big Apple campaign.

Richard Branson, Mike Myers, Paul Smith are all backing it. They're hoping it'll be in Greenwich village, where Tea & Sympathy is (opened by Nick Perry 17 years ago--they've served over 30m cups of tea!) and A Salt & Battery (a fish and chip shop next door). Close to Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Soho House, Manhattan outpost of the London club.

I'm all for it. It's essential to have a place in NYC to get the perfect cup of tea (aside from your own kitchen). As we Brits well know, a nice cup of tea is the solution to all sorts of important things--a good deal more than you might imagine.

If you want to see a funny "party political broadcast" spoof--plus ensure you always have a nice cup of tea waiting for you in the Big Apple click here.

diasies, God, children

[painting by ellie, age 8]

Here's one of my favorite passages of all time, by the great Gilbert Keith (so that's what those letters stood for) Chesterton:

"The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again," and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun, and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore."--G K Chesteron Orthodoxy.

testing books on children

The snow storm didn't stop us. We had loads of fun in Cold Spring NY last Saturday, reading Handbag Friends and How To Be A Baby and laughing and singing. And here we are reading HOW TO BE A BABY and laughing fondly at all the things babies can't do, poor things. (Like, for instance, when you're a baby you don't carry a back pack. You go in one. And you don't read books. You eat them. Stuff like that.) (Thank you Merritt Books and thank you children.)

Reading to children is a great (the only?) way to test a children's book. And here's one really cool thing I learned from a favorite publisher of mine (David Fickling):

I was testing out HANDBAG FRIENDS on some children in its very earliest stage (pencil sketches in a paper dummy) and I came to a bit where the children were asking me loads of questions. Like, "What is a Swamp-A-Stomp?" and "Where is the Murky Space Weed?" and "What do you mean Baglodytes?". So much so that I could hardly turn the page. Later, I reported back to David, "Oh dear I think I should write more in there because they're asking lots of questions." And then he said, no, you want them asking questions. It's when they aren't asking questions you need to worry because then they're not engaged. And you know the definition of a boring book, don't you? A book that does the work of the reader for them.

Isn't that great?

Hmm. Come of think of it, that could apply to more than just books...