Sign-Posts and Stars

In The Lion King, Simba describes the stars in the night sky as past kings that look down upon the land, leading the way for future kings. To Simba, these stars are considered guides, or sign-posts.

The navigation properties of the stars have been present since the beginning of man. Some of us also look upon the stars as figurative guides. Signs in the stars can shape one’s actions and decisions.

The sign-post can shape one’s actions and decisions.

Simba communicated with the kings of the past through the stars.

I am comunicating with the makers of the sign-posts to find my path in life.

Google Images

Thank you Google Images, for you have not only made my blog ecetically pleasing, but you have also led me to a few creative decisions.

1) With your various pictures of African landscape, you presented the idea of a journey through the forest of my blog.

2) Which also led me to my logo of the sign-post.

3) When I did not have a obvious image in my head of something that related to the subject of a post, I would gather the mood of the post and think of a word that encapsulates that mood. Then I would type that word in the Google Image search bar, leading me to the perfect picture for a more reflective post.

Final Words on the Blog and My Wide Image

Creating this blog of wide image has not only sharpened my knowlege and skills regarding new media but has also helped me more personally. Working out my wide image has allowed me to get more introspective within the last few months, allowing me to locate the essence of my nature.

Most specifically, in creating my Logo, I was able to put together all of the pieces and establish a personal motto: “Look hard, listen harder.”

I am at that stage in my life where I am evaluating the culmination of all my experiences in search for direction. This is what I did in order to create the blog and this is what I will do in order to find that direction for the next step.

Filmic Approach to Community Story

I wanted to bypass a dry documentation of history as well as a pretentious poetic style of telling my community story. I followed my own internal signs and came up with a creative approach that I could run with.  As a student of film and creative writing, I decided to tell my community story in the best way I knew how: in a filmic style, evoking more sound and imagery.

This approach goes well with my motto: “Look hard, listen harder.”

This approach also allowed me to get closer to the heart of my wide image. With an intimate focus onTrapper Nelson, I was able to insert myself into his environment, making it easier to scope out the vehicle for my emblem: the sign-post.

On Creating My Emblem

I finished reading Wabi Sabi by Leonard Koren and I gathered that our emblems must not be overly obvious. The more rustic, possibly, more natural emblems are favored and are thought of as possessing Wabi Sabi.

My blog is set in a lion’s jungle. I describe my search for melody in my family stories as a hunt for my wide image in my own vast jungle of experiences.

My entertainment story shows that Simba is a hunter.

My community story takes place in my then, undeveloped hometown where a man named Trapper Nelson lived in the forest, trapping native species.

I thought long and hard on what contenders there would be for my emblem and I came up with two: the forest and the sign-post.

In order to hone in on the vehicle of my Emblem, I ‘listened harder’ to my action of hunting and asked myself: “Which thing acts as a vehicle for my action?”

This is where I knew my vehicle was the sign-post.

Thing (Prop)

The sign-post is a guide. As hunters, we rely on guides: a sense of direction; something that betrays the trail. Without the sign-post we never reach the goal.

The sign-post is communication. There is always others directly or indirectly involved in the hunt. The outcome of the hunt hinges on the communication between the hunter and the others.

A sign-post can be either be placed by an outside source or an inside source. Whether or not it is a personal sign-post that you have created, both types of sign-posts will guide you.

Always follow the sign-post.

Attributes

A sign-post is a thing. Typically made of two wooden parts: a stake (the post), a board (the sign).

A post allows the sign to be seen.

A sign conveys a message.

A sign-post can be internal–a thought. In this case, the sign-post is symbolic. It is an epiphany.

A sign-post can be mystical–a vision. This can be a mirage, or a spiritual sign–a trick of the mind. This is the same as an internal sign-post but is presented in different form.

A sign-post can be many other things as long as those things lead the way. These sign-posts shed a light on direction. Sign-posts are guides to aid the hunter in search for the hunted.

Atmosphere

You can be navigating my blog and none of this would make sense of this unless you read my individual pages and followed the hyperlinks. Still, there would be some piecing together and self-interpretation involved, but you would not be completely lost.

You can be deer hunting in the back-country and you would never find a deer unless you stopped took look at the tracks.

You can be driving on a foreign highway and would never get back home without referring to the local guides.

You can be 10 years old, selling lemonade in your neighborhood cul-de-sac and you would never get any customers unless you had a booth with a banner that reads “Lemonade.”

You can be living a self-destructive lifestyle your whole life if you ignore the the help people are willing to give you.

In order for the sign-post to work, you must be willing follow the sign-post. This consists of trust. You must trust the sign-post.

Metaphysical

In life we have questions. We seek direction. We want to know we have the answers.

We only know a few things that are certain. We know our own strengths and weaknesses. We know our own likes and dislikes. We know the extent of our own happiness. We are all looking for success.

In order to find a path to that success we must consider our strengths and weaknesses. We must consider our likes and dislikes. We must consider what makes us happy.

What did Trapper Nelson do?

Trapper Nelson came to Jupiter, Florida looking for work in a paradise. Trapper Nelson was a skilled hunter. Trapper Nelson loved to perform. For Trapper Nelson, living in a secluded paradise where he had day-to-day interaction with the visitors made him happy. Trapper Nelson found success but he had help along the way. Trapper Nelson had the help of sign-posts.

The Jersey acquaintance told him of work opportunities that could be found in the paradise of Jupiter, Florida.

The Loxahatchee inspired a life of hunting.

The murder showed him a life of seclusion.

The sign-post brought in the visitors.

Morality

Look for the sign-posts.

Assess who you are and find your path. Along the way, look for the sign-posts. Your direction or path may change. That is all right.

Read the words.

What does the sign-post say? Interpret the words as best you can drawing on your personal attributes to gather meaning.

Listen to the meaning.

Someone is communicating with you. What they have to say might set you on track. Give them a chance. Give them your trust. Keep and open mind.

Mood

I seek a life of peace and paradise but I fear loneliness.

Trapper Nelson lived two lives: a life of seclusion and a life of visitors.

The sign-post brings the visitors. To me, this is necessary.

 

I hunt for the answer but there are multiple answers. I feel confused.

How to wrap my mind around melody? What is that one way Mamie learned the tune? There are a few ways to do both.

I listen to the sign-posts and I take what relates to me. Otherwise, there wouldn’t exist a sense of me.

 

I feel the need to find my place.

Simba forgot who he was. He needed a reminder; something that brought him back to his roots.

If I listen to my internal sign-posts I will find my place.

Jumping Rails

Early 1920’s

The sky is dark but for the golden glow rising over the Atlantic. 23 year-old Vincent Nelson runs at half pace with brother, Charles Nelson, at his heels. A few paces behind, John Dykas is adjusting his pack while he runs up the loose gravel mountain that leads to the rail.

“An empty one up ahead,” Vincent shouts to the others.

He races up to the empty boxcar and throws his pack inside. He then sprints and throws himself onto the moving train. The others follow.

Settlement in Jupiter

Vincent Nelson hops the train. He knows they are in South Florida. He breathes in the warm, salty smell of the Gulf Stream. Other travelers have told Nelson of the Gulf Stream and how it circles around the Gulf of Mexico, wraps around the Florida Keys and shoots up the Atlantic to Jupiter, Florida, their destination. These trappers from New Jersey have heard stories of job opportunities in this tropic region.

Vincent Nelson leads his two companions East, from the Old Dixie railway to the beaches of Jupiter.

They take the bridge over the Loxahatchee River, and find an expanse of woods buffering the Loxahatchee and the Atlantic.

They cut through the woods. Vincent Nelson makes a remark regarding trapping opportunities.

Once on the beaches, they set up camp and lay down for the night.

Murder

Charles Nelson slumps down to the trapline, where he tells Dykas he wants to strike out on his own.

“Give me my share of the money,” says Charles.

Dykas doesn’t respond.

“I’ll blow your head off in 15 minutes if you don’t have me my money by then.”

Charles Nelson comes back minutes later with a shotgun in his right hand. He holds the gun to Dykas’s head and pulls the trigger at point-blank range.

Trapper Retreats

After his brother is sentenced to life in prison, Vincent Nelson retreats deep into the woods of the Loxahatchee and finds an old hunter’s cabin. He fixes it up and extends it to the Loxahatchee, building a boat house. He sets trap lines and waits.

At 6′ 2″ and 220 lbs, Vincent Nelson becomes “Trapper Nelson,” the alligator wrestling, snake charming, Tarzan of South Florida.

Visitors

A lone fisherman passes by Trapper Nelson’s cabin and spots Trapper fishing off his dock.

The fisherman offers Trapper part of his sandwich and Trapper invites the fisherman to check out his catches.

After a while, the fisherman leaves and tells his other fishing buddies the tale of the wild man who lives in a cabin and keeps cages full of alligators, skunks, and rattlesnakes.

Days later, Trapper Nelson receives more fisherman visitors donning an offering of sandwiches. Word of Trapper Nelson spreads wide and far.

Trapper Nelson’s Zoo and Jungle Garden

Wealthy families from Palm Beach and Jupiter Island hear of Trapper Nelson and come to visit.

Trapper Nelson clears out a parking lot in his back yard and posts a sign out front that reads: Trapper Nelson’s Zoo and Jungle Garden.

He charges a quarter for kids and 50 cents for adults. Friends of the Palm Beach families come from New York, London, and Paris to visit the exotic Trapper Nelson’s Zoo and Jungle Garden.

Trapper Nelson’s Zoo and Jungle Garden owns up to any Amazon fantasy. Trapper Nelson purchases more land at $2.34 an acre.

My Wide Image

In my mystory, I repeatedly referred to my wide image as “this lion’s melody.” As the lion, I found a wide image to resemble a melody: a collection of patterns that is unique to one person and is varied in its reception. The “lion” alludes to The Lion King, and the “melody” alludes to my Family story: Blue Xylophone-Parts 1 and 2. 

In drawing patterns, I found it useful to look at similar actions: hitting, lifting, running, and thinking. These actions act as the supports of my family stories and in turn, make up my image of wide scope. Due to the rules of wide scope, my future creative endeavors are governed by these actions. In other words, these actions represent the scope of my creative image.

On Briggs and Kuhn

For this Hypermedia course, Dr. Gregory Ulmer had us read two books that would aid us in the discovery of our own images of wide scope. John Briggs’s Fire in the Crucible provided me with all of the nuts and bolts  of the wide image. A wide image can be composed in many ways. The reading that grabbed my attention was that on the topic of nuances. Briggs describes a nuance as the theme that is found in a creator’s earliest memory and is in turn, present in that creator’s future creative works. The example Briggs used was the nuance of the seashore in Virginia Wolf’s works. Virginia Wolf’s earliest memory is centered around waves crashing on the beach. The presence of the beach is felt within all of her works.

Annette Kuhn’s Family Secrets, was assigned in order to aid us in the process of creating a mystory. The mystory is a product of the Family, Entertainment, and Felt sections of my blog. It is my story. Kuhn’s chapter on her second viewing of the film Mandy led me straight to The Lion King. In Kuhn’s chapter, an adult Kuhn revisits the film of her childhood and finds herself emotionally affected by a particular scene. This scene was the same scene that affected her as a little girl. Now Kuhn is an adult and her emotional response to this particular scene  in Mandy has not changed.

I revisited The Lion King recently and found it to be my Mandy. I then started to hunt for my nuance.

On Patterns and Creating The Felt-Part 1

The image of wide-scope is about the patterns found in our emotional memories. Similar to Kuhns with Mandy, I am emotionally affected by The Lion King. There is a part of my subconscious that identifies with Simba through action, emotion, and image. In creating the Felt, I first thought back to certain scenes from the movie and looked for actions, images, and emotions. I could then look at my Family section and try and find similar actions, images, and emotions.

In creating my Felt, I started with the Family section. When I created my Family section, I thought long and hard and came up with two stories. The first story is my earliest memory. The second story is not necessarily an earliest memory, but it is unique in that it possess a strong etch on the walls of my memory. I believe that the second memory is so vivid because there are relatively strong emotional reactions present in the story. This led me to make an inference on the nature of memory: the strongest memories are filled with the strongest emotions. I chose the lemonade stand memory because I believed it to be an important part of my memory and image of wide scope.