Things to Ponder

Mandi Bingham\u27s short story Things to Ponder was written as part of a creative writing group using the theme of Where we Live. For our project, group members explored the theme Where We Live in its varied interpretations through fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. For my project, the theme Where We Live was addressed through creative nonfiction. I wanted to explore my own value as a writer, to myself and to my peers. The piece I wrote was influenced by my vision of personal events in my own life as well as the objective view of my narrator and her interpretation of the landscape I placed her in. As a creative writing theme, Where We Live suggests landscape, or physical, geographical location. As well, in a figurative sense the theme implies a current state of the world, or cultural view of specific/general world events. Also, Where We Live carries a state of mind quality, such as community or individual consciousness. As creative writers, by focusing on our theme and approaching the project from these different angles, we were able to examine our own lives and stories to achieve an objective view of the “landscape” in which we live. My goal was to produce a story that would challenge the narrator’s individual consciousness as well as my ability as a writer to create said challenges. As an additional challenge, our group has placed within each piece a series of reoccurring objects that unify our individual pieces. We attained our goals through observation, discussion, research, and workshop. Hoping that others gain from our awareness, we plan to present our writing at the conference, individually