Handling Perspective

Today's meditation is about perspective and the authors' examples were that of Alfred Hitchcock in Vertigo and Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey. For Futher Reflection states that description can capture the cinematic effects of perspective by calling attention to height, to distance, to the uncertainity that lies ahead, or above, or below. The writer, Mr. White, has the freedom to select any frame of reference, as the preferred point of view, and to shift it whenever he deems necessary.
Writing Exercises: Today there are two, (1) write a short-short stoey from the point of view of an onlooker, someone wh has an opportunity to observe the main characters closely without actually participating in their drama. (2) After completing the short-short story exercise in number one, retell the same story, only this time from the point of view of one of the principal characters.
Exercise 1:
Paulette sat at the window again. She sat at the same front window of her small one bedroom apartment in an ancient Georgetown brownstone every day. That's all she could do now was to spend her days sitting. In the daytime she sat in front of the window and watch the world go by, or at least the people who lived in, or visited this neighborhood. At night she sat and watched television. It was almost as if her world had ended that day twenty years ago when a car came careening around the corner and slammed into her driver-side door. She had been in the hospital a long time but that wasn't the worst part. She was now paralized from the waist down.

The settlement she received had been placed in a trust that provided her the necessary income to not have to worry about money but she was confined to her apartment. So she sat everyday and watched from the window as her neighbors went to work, as mothers took their children to school and then returned, as the neighborhood past before her window much like the characters on television. She did not really know any of them and yet she did. She knew the young career woman who lived across the hall. She was engaged and would likely be moving out once she got married, or maybe the couple planned on living here. The young couple who lived above the career woman who were expecting their first child. The middle-aged librarian who lived above her. Then there was the young man who looked like a beatnik, or musician, who lived in the basement apartment. Yes, she knew all about their lives even if she did not really know them.

Paulette however, had invented names for them and made up stories about them that she wrote in her journal. Maybe some day she would put them together into a book. At that thought she laughed at herself. She really could not see herself turning her journal into any kind of manuscript. That would require to much effort. Instead this was something she did to get through the day. The only time there was a break in her routine was when the mailman delivered an unexpected letter or catalogue. Even the days she did laundry, got groceries delivered, or had a visit from the minister who was assigned visition duties by her old church, were now down to a routine.

Exercise 2:
Ginny was a busy you career woman on the go. She had a wonderful career with a publishing company. She was engaged to a wonderful man. She and Stephen had been dating for two years, when on Christmas eve a few months ago he had proposed. Her world was bright and rosy. However, she had started to notice about six months after she moved into the building that the woman who lived across never left her apartment. Ever time Ginny left, or returned to the building during daytime hours she saw her there sitting in her window framed by the lacy curtains on the window. At night Ginny could hear the television or see it's flickering blue light in the window.

Over the years Ginny had often wondered if the woman ever left the building. At times, she thought about knocking on her door to just see what she could find out but she always changed her mind. What would she say any way if the woman did answer. "Oh, I was curious why you are always watching me when I leave the building during the day and so I decided to stop and tell you---what". It was here Ginny always stopped because she just could not think of a valid reason to be noisy. Then last week an idea came to her. Since it was almost Easter she would buy a pretty potted plant that bloomed and would deliver it to the woman.

Today was the day she had decided to stop. It was Good Friday and she hoped the woman was at home. Carefully she approached the door across the hall from her's and pushed the doorbell. She was about to push it again because there had been no answer, when the door opened. There in her wheelchair sat a lovely middle-aged woman with dark hair that was streaked with gray. Ginny's mouth almost dropped open but she quickly regained her composure. "I have seen you in the window almost every day for over two years now and I have never stopped by to introduce myself." Ginny stammered. "I thought it was about time I did so and to also give you these flowers to brighten your window."

"Thank you", the woman stated, "Won't you please come in and have a cup of tea. I was about to make myself one".