What we really want is to come to life.

I'm going to bring the blog back to Artic Dreams for some time, because on Thursday, Barry Lopez came to speak with our class. It is so amazing to meet the author behind the book you have read, spent time with, discussed in class, and realize that those are his words. The man in front of me wrote this beautiful 400 page book. Saying he wrote it feels like an understatement. He labored over it, spent hours rewriting passages he probably didn't use, edited countless drafts...so much goes into writing that is unmarked. As with every piece of art, I would imagine.

Barry Lopez wasn't intimidating, he didn't feel like a stranger. I really like that non-fiction is non-fiction in that everything he wrote about actually happened. And he was there! It is such an exposure, but such a connection at the same time.
And he speaks so eloquently. He really reached out to the class, and talked to us on a level that we could understand and relate to. I would imagine that would be difficult with all of the scientists he has traveled around with, but maybe easier, because he can appreciate being with different groups of people.

Mostly I just want to share some quotes with you that I scrambled to write as he spoke.

I have no point to make in the moral universe--my universe, I'm not asking anyone to live there.

My effort as a writer is to be a companion rather than an authority.

It doesn't mean that I'm some sort of a nutcase when it comes to detail.

I don't always know what I'm doing, and it doesn't bother me. I'm trying to make a beautiful pattern.

Beautify is found in the complexity of the world, both in the light and the not light.

[In regards to writing Arctic Dreams]...I spent two years looking at things and trying to not make them mean anything.

[in regards to talking about death or any near death experiences] Just let it alone, be glad that you have come home.

I love the kind of humor that keeps you going when your face is peeling off with frost bite.

When people applaud, what they are really applauding is how they feel.

[in regards to what has made it all worth it]...the realization of the divine...that makes you aware of the enthusiasm for light, I mean life. (I like that he slipped there, light is a beautiful answer too.)

This is one that really spoke to me:
Although we say we want to go to heaven, what we really want is to come to life.