Carleigh P. period 7

I really enjoyed reading The Infinite Suggestiveness of Common Things by Patrick Madden, because he had very interesting insights on the way he views the world. My favorite part is that he described how much his children influenced his everyday life, and the entertainment they added to his writing. I read posts everyday about funny things children have said and done, and it seems like their life is so entertaining. However, I like that Madden points out that our every day lives can be just as entertaining. Madden quoted Bernard Cooper, who said "We sleepwalk through most of our lives . . . and . . . every once in a while something happens . . . outside ourselves that forces us to pay attention in a new way." Our lives are almost robotic, and reading Madden's words made me realize that one day, I will miss the little moments I just breezed past because I was too busy to think much about them. Our writing is like this, because we're always given a strict prompt or outline, but when you can slow down and write about something you love, it has more meaning behind it. I also loved Madden's point when we says, "And so I (and my friends, known and unknown) continue this quiet labor, stopping to smell the roses, suspicious that the tree falling in the forest does make a sound, the cat in the box might as well be alive. The exercise of writing from the infinite suggestiveness of common things has proved more fruitful for me time and time again...". We would all do better to take some time, slow down, and appreciate the little things. We have so much to learn from the tiny, seemingly pointless things that happen to us everyday, and they can impact our writing.