Consuming and Creating: Part 2: Consuming begets Creation

I have previously written some about Consuming and Creating and this is a continuation of those thoughts. Yesterday I watched the movie Prince Caspian. It was one of those rare moments of consumption that motivated me to create. Sometimes I think that media can be so well created that it inspires you to be better, stronger, braver, and more creative. I had a similar experience in high school and I have since documented that experience in the following snapshot.

 Quietly I turned the last page and closed the book before me. I ran my hands down the worn binding of The Killer Angels and gently returned it to the second pocket of my backpack. Barely hearing the noisy chatter all around me I gazed out the bus window. The familiar trees and roads went by, but I saw only the bloody fields of Gettysburg. We turned down Shawsheen Road and in a daze I got off at my stop, distancing myself even more from the loud chaos.

I practically tiptoed home as I contemplated the death and the sadness, the absolute majesty of the book. In the very midst of Union victory Shaara had reverted to the view of the Confederate leader, Longstreet. The triumph I had experienced just pages before turned to the futileness of defeat. Every war has two such sides, and yet rarely are both sides portrayed so well.

I set each foot down carefully, avoiding crackling leaves, as I walked up the wooden steps of our porch and opened the door slowly. I carefully took off my shoes and inched the door shut. I moved in a sort of personal memorial for the men who had died and the writer who had brought them to life.

“Why are you being so quiet?” My Mom called from the next room, jarring my thoughts.

“I just feel like it” I said, hating to break my silence.