show, don't tell

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Watching Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams" yesterday at my son's suggestion, I was reminded again of the old writing axiom, "show, don't tell."

How hard it is, once a body of experience is under anyone's belt, not to get lazy and tell somebody something. And it is made harder still by the fact that, like children, many people long to be told.

Kurosawa's anti-war sentiments and appreciation of nature in "Dreams" came perilously close to mounting the bully pulpit and announcing, "Hey, you assholes, you've got it wrong. Do it this way!" Still, it was a generally pretty movie -- a kind of short story collection on film -- and I watched pretty much all of it.

It did remind me, however, of how lazy I can be.
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