Subject: Love

So I asked a friend from high school, Simone, what would be interesting to blog about. She answered, "Love and its many facets." Immediately, I went for the Bible (as it's a biblical subject I've been concentrating a lot about lately after my trip to Israel/Palestine) - to which she answered: "I just meant generally that love has many sides." Then she also suggested: "Or [you could write about] violence in relationships." And that had me thinking...

As you can see, I already started brainstorming as I spoke with her. I thought out loud, sent her a link to the Bible online and gave her the quotes I found. Even as I write this, I have started to part and dissecate the subject as it is such a big subject.

So, instead of doing one blog entry, I'm taking it in smaller bites. This is both inspired by the two different approaches Simone and I have to the subject, and by the list of studies I applied to when I applied for the university - especially theatre studies and theology.

What I'm planning to write about is:

• Love in the Bible
  - which could include something about the situation in Israel/Palestine
  - and could be a good one for theology.
• Love between human beings (regardless of ... well, anything).
• Love on stage
  - including Shakespeare (remind me to quote Jonatan Spang on this!)
  - could also include love in the media
  - and you might have quessed it, this one is attached to theatre studies.
• Love for your roots - your identity
  - could be an entry in true Paul Auster-style!
  - and is attached to Dutch
  - or now that I mentioned Paul Auster, it can be hooked on English.
• Violence in relationships.

So, now I have yet another list for times with a writer's block - and I didn't even need LiveJournal for this one. Hooray!

If I could be any character from children's litterature...

So, since I have now applied for the university, and just about all of them had me mentioning blogging on the side of just about any profession, I thought I might just do more frequently, just for the heck of it. So I thought I'd start by reaching for the entries I did on ideas for writer's block from LJ...

"A lot of characters in kids' books have it pretty good, from calling the start of the wild rumpus to ordering room service from their hotel suite. If you could be any character from children's literature, who would you be?"

I have two different characters:

1. Neville Longbottom of the Harry Potter series
I've always been utterly fascinated of the existance of an alternate universe - thus the fantasy and sci-fi genres as wholes, mainly stuff like Harry Potter, X-Men, and The Matrix, and I think it's exactly because the alternate universe is so closely connected to the real world as it is. Granted, I'm also in love with the Tolkien universe. In my head, we should be living as hobbits with a trip to the Elven world every so often.

But the reason why I picked Neville Longbottom is because, yes, I do love still being connected to real life - and yes, I'd love to be able to do magic just with the swing of the wand!
I feel that Neville has a shyness and yet is brave enough to surprise all of us when trying to stop Harry and Hermione from doing mischief, or actually somehow becomes the hero, the man of the hour, by getting in the middle of everything by accident or coincidence at some point. He has that perfect blend of shyness - or groundedness, humbleness - and bravery that I would love to possess; it's a freakin' fine line here. I don't think I'm the hero half the time that Neville is - and that's because I don't want to meddle. That's where Neville's clumpsyness does him well; I'm not even clumpsy enough to get into the middle of everything to become the hero.
And I also believe that he's an excellent wizard, regardless of being clumpsy and shy.

2. Pippi Longstocking of the Pippi Longstocking series
She's strong, she's young, she's independent, she's got her own horse (that she can carry around in one hand because she's so strong), she's got a chest of drawers with fun things, she's got a bag full of golden coins, she's got an entire house to herself in a small, Swedish town, and she's got the coolest hair!

I'd love to be able to do what I wanted like that. One thing I remember worrying her was not getting holidays off because she didn't attend school - but when she tried attending school, she got bored and preferred having time off all the time. I might just be attending school anyways - just to be extra-extra social...

And I just loveloveadore the scenery in the TV-series with Inger Nilsson as Pippi. In this case, I'll have to admit that there is no place like home - the road between Jerusalem and Jericho may be amazing, and the scenery in UK and Ireland may be breathtaking, but I don't think I'd trade any of them for the nature and scenery of Scandinavia. Ever.

I have spoken.