Janelle C. Period 5

    I found this passage instructive and useful. I had always thought that one needs to wait for an important revelation. Patrick Madden didn’t wait for the truth to fall into his hands. He eagerly sought it out, and didn’t stop until he was satisfied with his findings. I thought it was very interesting that part of his revelation was realized because of another language; Spanish, in this case. Quotidiana: it was just one word, something he learned in Spanish and wanted to find its English equivalent, and that, for him, defined the beauty of ordinary things.
    “I want a literature built entirely out of contemplation and revelation…the real story isn’t the drama of what happens; it’s what we’re thinking about while nothing, or very little, is happening.” For me, this quote defines a memoir. I’m trying to decide what I want to write about, and I was thinking of doing a big, recent event, but that’s not what memoirs are supposed to be about. “Then I learned that essays were not stories, did not focus on great adventures or recoveries…” I’m not very observant, so trying to find a small and important, but somehow amazingly significant is going to be difficult for me, but I’m going to try.