Super Tiger

In the past six months, Tiger Woods officially played in seven golf tournaments. He won five of them, including his second-place finish at the Masters in April and his 14th Major Championship win at the U.S. Open this past weekend. As remarkable as this is, there's something amiss. What's the problem? The problem is that Tiger Woods tore his ACL. Last July.

Following this year's Masters, Tiger had arthroscopic surgery to clean up some cartilage that was damaged as a result of playing golf on a torn knee. Two weeks before the Open, he suffered a double stress fracture in the tibia on the same leg. The doctor said treatment involved six weeks without golf. Tiger said, "I'm playing in the U.S. Open, and I'm going to win." That is precisely what he did.



That highlight video is the best I can find, and it gives you a sense of the exceptional nature of Tiger's play. However, the incredible putts and chips, the gargantuan tee shots, those are only the products of Woods' greatness. The biggest highlight isn't conducive to a three-minute clip. The biggest highlight is how this gladiator, this warrior, this man gritted his teeth and endured 91 holes of USGA torture. That's right... four rounds, an 18-hole playoff, and one sudden-death hole on one leg without a word about what was wrong. Now, that is a grinder.

I'm not much for celebrity, and I know how much perception can be manipulated, so I'll never know for sure. But in my opinion, the source of Woods' greatness is in his mind and, dare I say, in his spirit. Mental toughness, strength, even courage, it is not an exaggeration to find these things in someone like Tiger. And all that we see on TV is only a tenth of the exhausting work, the effort, and the heart that he puts in. Despite the money, despite the fame, that's integrity, because no one will ever know the soul put into the work.

Add to the above the practice of repetition, of repeatedly doing the right things to get you to where you want to go, as well as the presence at the end of the day to be a husband and be a father and you will get a recipe for all the things I learned by watching a golf tournament last weekend. With tomorrow being the one-year anniversary of my launching this blog, I hope to incorporate into my writing over the next year the things I learned from Tiger which are also things others have long told me.

And maybe Elin Woods' twin sister is available, too...

The Matrix, Myth, and Me

"Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human manifestation..." -- Joseph Campbell

I'm about to start reading my new book, The Matrix and Philosophy, and I thought I'd give an insight into a subject that fascinates me in all aspects of my life: myth. I use "myth" here in the academic sense, not the common sense which connotes a story that is fake. There is at least some sort of truth in every way that I use "myth". I find myself drawn to mythology and, in particular, the hero's journey. This applies especially to the messianic figure. These things are a pleasure to see in fiction, no matter the medium, and I feel compelled in some way to include mythology in my own work. Beyond that, however, there are also applications toward everyday living in the real world.

I always had a general affinity for mythic tales and stories told on an epic scale. In fact, The Matrix trilogy is one of my all-time favorites. I find myself to be one of the few people who loved the second and third installments as much as the first. Fortunately, a couple of years ago I found this Essays Collection written by someone who loved The Matrix as much as I did. Even better was the fact that he had a much deeper and more detailed understanding of the philosophical, mythological, and religious concepts & symbolism prevalent throughout the films. I highly recommend his essays, but I suggest an extra cup of coffee or two before reading. It is certainly an impressive synthesis of many of the world's cultures into one grand story.

Through these essays, I was introduced to Joseph Campbell who wrote Hero with a Thousand Faces. He also had a famous interview broadcast on PBS called The Power of Myth. Campbell is most famous for describing the hero's journey, which appears in some way or another across many cultures.

The more I've learned and read, the more enthusiastic I have become. I think it is definitely common to have the need to feel like we are doing something important. I always wanted my writing to feel like it could be something greater than the sum of its parts. Myth is where I get that feeling. So I resolved to fit into some kind of mythic framework. There are many ways to do this, and I expect it to come about naturally. I look forward both to writing straightforward about mythology but also to exploring how common, everyday life can also apply.

JT, the matrix has you.

Dailies

When you don't know what else to write about, write about writing! One of the most difficult things I have found in my writing is not getting inspired, it is managing all the simultaneous inspirations that are always spinning through my head. An overabundance of ideas is both a blessing and a curse. I have numerous examples of great literary visions that stall completely when I put pen to paper.

Getting ideas is fairly predictable for me. Seeing their endpoint in a grand unveiling of storytelling is a most simple matter. It's that tiny part in between that always seems to be a nagging problem. Point A to Point B. The problem with it is that the particular story I'm inspired to write at any given moment is ruled by an ethereal, mysterious, and certainly complex process that I may never understand. So, there are usually around six simultaneous Point A's trying to reach six simultaneous Point B's. Huge problem.

My friends, I believe I have solved my problem thanks to taking a page from film. There are many similarities between literature and film, especially on a philosophical level. Obviously, both require a vision. Both require the ability to take and weave complex elements into a cohesive story. Both need editing, and in my case, self-editing. Both are essentially like sculpture. Their success is in channeling what is basically the madness of creative inspiration into a story understandable beyond the artist himself. So, thanks to film I have a new management strategy for story-writing.

At the end of the day of shooting, a director will usually sit down and watch all of the footage, raw or otherwise, that was shot on that particular day. Intuitively, these collections of footage are called dailies. I, too, have decided to keep a set of dailies for each story that I write. This way I can tell the parts of the story I want when I'm inspired to tell them, and then reassemble them in the main file. If I get stalled while writing in the main file, I can go to the dailies. Or, if one character or part of the story in the dailies stalls, I can stop and move on to another one.

Sometimes, I believe I have a measure of control over my creative abilities that I don't, in fact, have. It is a mistake to think that I can completely direct creative inspiration. But, I believe a strategy like this will allow me to harness it. Who knows? Maybe my productivity will jump up a notch.