I’m Ariella, and for a long time, I have been undercover as a regular suburban mom, trying to guard the secret that I am bursting with ideas and observations about the world. Recently, a good friend pointed out that I haven’t been very successful at holding it all in, which is admittedly true. So rather than continuing to have things leak out in inconvenient places, I decided to park them all here.
Some of the things I like to write about are religion, parenting, marriage, and all forms of human connection. I’m especially interested in big collective stories that shape how we see the world, particularly because sometimes, it’s strangely easy to ignore them.
Do you suppose that it’ll ever make a comeback the way that 70’s bellbottoms did? Maybe I’m ahead of the curve. Or maybe behind. Or maybe I just think it’s just fun to romp around the world on intellectual adventures. Join me?
These 15 beats are present everywhere that there is good storytelling. Blake Snyder didn’t make the rule that stories have to be about a protagonist’s personal transformation. He simply noticed that an audience won’t feel complete unless it happens.
Nothing is more lonely than having an important memory with a person that they can’t recall
Believing that we would have acted differently than the townspeople is precisely the enduring (if unreasonable) pleasure of An Enemy of the People
Maybe I’m just too grumpy; maybe I’m too old. I was tired, I don’t want to be up at midnight and waving my arms. Or maybe if the crowd had grown frenzied I would have too. But I don’t think so. I think you can only feel it if the performer really brings herself.
The leaders of these companies don’t need to be despots (or demons) in order for us all to summon our collective will to make healthier, happier, and more secure online spaces.
I’m going to offer this as a bit of a conviction: Complexity is not to be feared. Nor analysis, context, reconsideration, any of it. We don’t lose the ability to morally condemn just because we have come to a more nuanced explanation.
