Salutations

“Just saying Hi” was taken, so I tried to be clever.  As much as I would enjoy taking a more active part in the Gaia on-line community, I am currently working as a bookseller full-time and studying Creative Non-Fiction in the Omaha Writer's Workshop 16 credit hours per week.

My immediate goal is to publish a memoir of my tour of duty in Iraq.  I want to emphasize the weakness of stoicism and the emotional damage one undergoes as a result.

I will be graduating “with honors” and will probably apply for Grad school at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, where I hope to spend two years researching/writing a graphic novel (yes, a comic book) narrating Spiritual Evolutionary theory from the dualist narration of the electro-magnetic spectrum.  While it sounds…heady? foolish? laughable? Ego-maniacal? 
The goal is to get an accessible item into the hands of these more-and-more visual focused generations that will spark excitement about their place in society and the deeper topics I have a feeling 95%+ of Gaia community members are passionate about.

Besides, I am not a good enough writer to capture the concepts I have in mind with just words!  Illustrations are a must!  hehe

Re: Salutations

Hi Will!

Welcome to Gaia!  We are so happy to have you here with us and especially
that you made it home safely from Iraq.

Blessings on the grad work. Naropa is a wonderful place and you will
be inspired just being there.

If we can assist you in any way here, just give a shout out.

Peace on…

Ladybear

Re: Salutations

I have heard wonderful things indeed about Naropa.  I may have to implore advise about being accepted, but that will not be for at least another year.

I, too, am glad to have made it home safely from the first tour.  We'll see how 2011/2012 treats me!  As I told a Woman's Studies major tonight after I read an essay from my deployment, “If you didn't have the two sensible, open minded individuals in the military who take what they experience and bring it back…well, then the close-minded militant conservatives would take over!”
It may have been a funnier statement with the inflection of voice…

How long have you been a member?  This is the online social community I have been hunting for since I first learned such communities existed.  I see the Consiousness shift occurring all around me; collective lucidity is like a planet-sized rose opening, or a lotus flower…of course.

I already know how to be a part of that, and have the work ethic to succeed.  I remain open to the endlessness of personal growth.  The few direct contacts I've had in this forum have been encouraging and positive enough to spotlight those dark corners of despair and make them do a comedy routine…

What else do I need?

Re: Salutations

Not a good writer??!!
Graphic Novelling is an extremely multidimensional process, materializing images out of the millions possible, it is a symphonic approach to writing blending form, words, sometimes color or absense of color…. i could go on.
Take it from an educational consultant working with extremely creative kids who don't think they are good writers, it is no small thing! I'm so excited to hear about your intentions and wish you the very best journey Grad School or not! I can't wait to read your memoir someday.
R-