Comments on: THOMAS SULLIVAN: DREAMING DREAMS YOU NEVER DARED TO DREAM BEFORE, THE X FACTOR, AND KEEPING THE FAITH http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/ Just another Storytellers Unplugged weblog Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:18:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Thomas "Sully" Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/comment-page-1/#comment-334 Thomas "Sully" Sullivan Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:16:13 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=877#comment-334 Couple of late notes: 1 Frank Wydra's computer has been down since the 13th, which is why he can't post replies or communicate. 2 Have heard from some posters on this column of mine that they couldn't get this post to work. I think Dave and Joe are on it, so this is just punctuation on the problem. Couple of late notes:

1 Frank Wydra’s computer has been down since the 13th, which is why he can’t post replies or communicate.

2 Have heard from some posters on this column of mine that they couldn’t get this post to work. I think Dave and Joe are on it, so this is just punctuation on the problem.

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/comment-page-1/#comment-333 Thomas Sullivan Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:24:18 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=877#comment-333 Watch it. Chickens. I'm very sensitive, since Venus my chocolate chewing chicken went missing (see my November newsletter). And I want to thank the good people who emailed me condolences. Last report had her in a landfill, but I believe in the resurrection of white feathers and Nipples of Venus (her favorite confection). It's kismet. -- Sully Watch it. Chickens. I’m very sensitive, since Venus my chocolate chewing chicken went missing (see my November newsletter). And I want to thank the good people who emailed me condolences. Last report had her in a landfill, but I believe in the resurrection of white feathers and Nipples of Venus (her favorite confection). It’s kismet.

– Sully

]]> By: Dave Wilson http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/comment-page-1/#comment-332 Dave Wilson Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:03:09 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=877#comment-332 To get to the chicken? To get to the chicken?

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/comment-page-1/#comment-331 Thomas Sullivan Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:52:16 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=877#comment-331 "... each time something new is encountered that falls into place almost of its own accord ..." You nail it. Once you cross the river you wonder why you were ever on the other side. -- Sully (Thomas Sullivan) “… each time something new is encountered that falls into place almost of its own accord …” You nail it. Once you cross the river you wonder why you were ever on the other side.

– Sully (Thomas Sullivan)

]]> By: Dave Wilson http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/comment-page-1/#comment-330 Dave Wilson Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:05:27 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=877#comment-330 Didn't get to read this over the weekend...glad now, that I saved it for a gloomy monday morning with no sunshine. I love the layering process, and it's a great analogy. It's happening right now for me on a collaborative project...I know the story is solid, but each time something new is encountered that falls into place almost of its own accord - some turn of phrase or image I never considered in the initial planning stage, it fuels the fires. Thanks again Sully - in particular for the image of you trying to wrap Christmas presents! Dave Didn’t get to read this over the weekend…glad now, that I saved it for a gloomy monday morning with no sunshine. I love the layering process, and it’s a great analogy. It’s happening right now for me on a collaborative project…I know the story is solid, but each time something new is encountered that falls into place almost of its own accord – some turn of phrase or image I never considered in the initial planning stage, it fuels the fires.

Thanks again Sully – in particular for the image of you trying to wrap Christmas presents!

Dave

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/comment-page-1/#comment-329 Thomas Sullivan Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:43:27 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=877#comment-329 May take you up on that, Janet, and see if I can make it fly... Improbability is another thing I've come to trust. It's like a red flag to me now. I dig one layer deeper and find my universes. Just this minute came in from a few hours on the ski trails where I received another object lesson in never giving up. After 16 days straight of long skis, and then yesterday a very long one, I started out today intending to hit the realy isolated back trails but called it in when I felt exhausted. Made it back to the ski lodge where I had some hot chocolate and Cytomax. It hit me like a shot of adrenaline, and I realized that that was the only thing blocking me. I was out of fuel. Grabbed up some provisions and hit the trails again, back on my game plan. And it was a superb afternoon, and I feel invincible. Fuel can be food or imagination or inspiration or anything else one lacks. But it is almost never an absence of opportunity or choice. -- Sully May take you up on that, Janet, and see if I can make it fly… Improbability is another thing I’ve come to trust. It’s like a red flag to me now. I dig one layer deeper and find my universes. Just this minute came in from a few hours on the ski trails where I received another object lesson in never giving up. After 16 days straight of long skis, and then yesterday a very long one, I started out today intending to hit the realy isolated back trails but called it in when I felt exhausted. Made it back to the ski lodge where I had some hot chocolate and Cytomax. It hit me like a shot of adrenaline, and I realized that that was the only thing blocking me. I was out of fuel. Grabbed up some provisions and hit the trails again, back on my game plan. And it was a superb afternoon, and I feel invincible. Fuel can be food or imagination or inspiration or anything else one lacks. But it is almost never an absence of opportunity or choice.

– Sully

]]> By: Janet Berliner http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/comment-page-1/#comment-328 Janet Berliner Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:29:17 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=877#comment-328 It'll fly, Sully. Last week I had to write a pitch for RIVER OF STONES--one sentence that made my narrative non-fiction a comprehensible "Sell" to marketing. "Play it as it lays..." is as close as dammit to what I suggested. --Janet It’ll fly, Sully. Last week I had to write a pitch for RIVER OF STONES–one
sentence that made my narrative non-fiction a comprehensible “Sell” to marketing. “Play it as it lays…” is as close as dammit to what I suggested.

–Janet

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/comment-page-1/#comment-327 Thomas Sullivan Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:04:42 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=877#comment-327 Janet -- Wish you'd put those words before me ahead of my column deadline: "...each moment is a beginning." That's a wonderful catchphrase for the mental attitude I tried so clumsily to capture. That sense of newness is how you keep from being defeated. No time for mourning, for negativity, it's amazing how there is always something positive to be exploited. Faith and imagination are required, of course. The more, the better. And I'm anything but a Polyanna. Cynical humor is really my thing. But you have to understand the one in order to make up the other. I've learned to create my own atmosphere, to be the actor rather than the audience. I think that's the key to happiness. Hmmm. Another essay, only it probably won't fly in a forum about books. Ah, well. "Play it as it lays..." -- Sully (Thomas Sullivan) Janet — Wish you’d put those words before me ahead of my column deadline: “…each moment is a beginning.” That’s a wonderful catchphrase for the mental attitude I tried so clumsily to capture. That sense of newness is how you keep from being defeated. No time for mourning, for negativity, it’s amazing how there is always something positive to be exploited. Faith and imagination are required, of course. The more, the better. And I’m anything but a Polyanna. Cynical humor is really my thing. But you have to understand the one in order to make up the other. I’ve learned to create my own atmosphere, to be the actor rather than the audience. I think that’s the key to happiness. Hmmm. Another essay, only it probably won’t fly in a forum about books. Ah, well. “Play it as it lays…”

– Sully (Thomas Sullivan)

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/comment-page-1/#comment-326 Thomas Sullivan Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:54:16 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=877#comment-326 Amalgam -- Wasn't sure any of what I wanted to say about crossing the great divide between a sure thing (usually reserved for mediocrity) and reaching for something too big and worthwhile to be contained in a warranty would make sense. But it does to you, Amalgam. Thanks a long ton for letting me glimpse in that always clouded mirror we have of ourselves. I have a suspicion that unless you've experienced this kind of deliverance threw faith it just sounds corny. But once you have, you realize that it's the ultimate test of where you can get to in life. And the more times it happens, the easier it gets to trust in yourself and in the richness of possibilities that are always there. You just start to recognize when the stars are all correctly aligned with potential. Funny thing is I'm blind as a bat for normal things, but my radar for the exquisite and the rare seems to be hypertuned. It usually means I'm on the outside looking in, but it also means my life is never boring. And I'll take that. Meaningful days, always the depth in things...I'll take it. -- Sully (Thomas Sullivan) Amalgam –
Wasn’t sure any of what I wanted to say about crossing the great divide between a sure thing (usually reserved for mediocrity) and reaching for something too big and worthwhile to be contained in a warranty would make sense. But it does to you, Amalgam. Thanks a long ton for letting me glimpse in that always clouded mirror we have of ourselves. I have a suspicion that unless you’ve experienced this kind of deliverance threw faith it just sounds corny. But once you have, you realize that it’s the ultimate test of where you can get to in life. And the more times it happens, the easier it gets to trust in yourself and in the richness of possibilities that are always there. You just start to recognize when the stars are all correctly aligned with potential. Funny thing is I’m blind as a bat for normal things, but my radar for the exquisite and the rare seems to be hypertuned. It usually means I’m on the outside looking in, but it also means my life is never boring. And I’ll take that. Meaningful days, always the depth in things…I’ll take it.

– Sully (Thomas Sullivan)

]]> By: Janet Berliner http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2007/12/16/thomas-sullivan-dreaming-dreams-you-never-dared-to-dream-before-the-x-factor-and-keeping-the-faith/comment-page-1/#comment-325 Janet Berliner Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:50:35 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/?p=877#comment-325 Beginnings are wonderful, perfect in every way. Extrapolate. Each moment is but a beginning...thus your life is a perfect creation. Happy, happy, Sullyman. --Janet Beginnings are wonderful, perfect in every way. Extrapolate. Each moment is but a beginning…thus your life is a perfect creation. Happy, happy, Sullyman.

–Janet

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