A Changing World of Time and Space – September 24, 09
I’ve always been able to write words on paper. Writing for me is second nature . . . almost akin to breathing. If I have a subject to write about, I can somehow capture the essence and feeling of the word or subject matter and transcribe it onto paper. However, I’ve never been able to actually ‘draw’ my feelings onto paper.
I love good pieces of art, and I’m in absolute awe when my childrens book characters are brought (literally alive) from my writings and imaginations. I admire those wondrous artistic guys and gals who can almost telepathically transfer the ideas from my writing and descriptions onto paper, giving my real world a picture to go with my imaginary world.
Drawing isn’t an area I was blessed with, and I have to rely on other talented artists to provide me with ”the look” for my characters. Sometimes this process (from my mind to theirs) is a long and drawn out process and can be very frustrating, as the artist sometimes can’t see what I see, and it takes a long time and many tries for them to get the way my mind works in its totality.
I was lying in bed a few weeks ago, thinking about a new Panda Bear character I’m developing for my kid’s program, The Land Of I. Since I’m working with a Chinese investor for the next thirteen episodes of my series, they asked if I would include a character with Chinese connections. A Panda Bear was an easy character for me to jump on as I love the looks of the little bears, and they’re definitely connected to China. Besides all that, our two Shih Tzu’s look a lot like Panda Bears already.
I researched the Panda’s lineage and their background and decided I’d allow the investors family and friends to ultimately name the new Panda, but I created a personality, a gender, a special look, a place to live, how she fits in with the other Land Of I characters, etc. (All necessary ingredients for the new character to “fit in” with the rest of the Land Of I community and friends and another wholly different culture.)
I’ve given her the temporary name of Lu-Lu (Lou-Lou). I have to feel close to the character I’m developing so I gave her a name so she feels close to my imagination. She must somehow bridge the many cultures and their thoughts and expectations about Panda Bears and how kids relate to the rare species. Chinese Panda Bears got me to thinking about other planets and what type of species must be evolving there. Let’s say that another planet may be warmer than ours here on Earth. That would call for the evolving species to be more adaptable to higher temperatures similar to the hottest of deserts of our world. If colder, than a more mammoth – wooly type of species must be evolving. It would be interesting to visit another planet that evolved within the water, instead of taking to the land, or . . . what if a species evolved from within the caves of their planet and not the sunlight. What if the reptilian species evolved into the highest form of human species? What if a mammal from the sea did? This would certainly contribute to an interesting meeting of minds in some far off millennium. Would the sea mammal be similar to dolphins, but with a more structured mind and body? Would there be cities beneath the sea? Would the reptilian mind be more of an aggressive nature of one of the earthly reptilian species? I believe it would be fantastic to find out. How about the planets that have colder climates? Would their cities be sheltered with domes for warmth or would the human-like species look completely different with some type of anti-freeze within their blood stream? If all of the creatures from all the otherworldly spheres have reached the status of human beings (where they consciously make a decision for right and wrong, and discern a power higher or greater than ourselves) then they would be deemed human, wouldn’t they?
Imagine the leap we’d have to take on the acceptance level if that were true. We have such a hard time making the transitions to others faith based beliefs, cultures, and races here on this planet, imagine the leap we’d have to take if we had to deal with other spheres and highly intelligent species and cultures beyond even earth. Wow!!!
Whenever I think we’re making inroads into understanding our fellow man, (and through the recent systems of technology and communications, we are making progress) I always come back to the bottom line. Until we can accept that we are truly one world and one people, we’re definitely not ready to explore other regions of space and time. Any thoughts?
Talk at you soon.
Jaye Bartlett