By Makayla Edwards
“I was still a new parent when my son first became aware of bombs when he first started to ask ‘why’ questions about war and violence. I can’t say that I know a lot more now than I did then. But perhaps he knew something then that we can all try to remember.
He knew that he wanted to be a hummingbird.”
– “On Kids and Bombs (or How To Be a Hummingbird)” by Steven Church (River Teeth 15.2 Spring 2014)
Basic geometry tells us that in order for two lines to be parallel they must be able to continue infinitely in either direction without ever intersecting. A perfect pair stretching forever and ever, promising never to meet. However, this does not mean they cannot be connected. Think of the letter “H” for example. Each respective leg could continue upwards or downwards and never intersect, yet, the horizontal line between the two legs (known as the “transversal”) bonds them, creating one entity. Connected, but never clashing. This same idea can be applied to storytelling by creating two separate moments in a story that never actually converge but are still inherently tied to one another.
Steven Church employs this method in “On Kids and Bombs (or How To Be a Hummingbird).” The essay tackles complex themes of family, death, and terror in the modern world. The story spans eight years, multiple bombings/threats, two states, and one divorce. Despite this major load, the entire essay is contained in a mere four pages. It may seem near impossible for such a short essay to hold so much time and trauma, but that is the beauty of parallels. They don’t need twenty pages to prove their significance. Just two moments and a whole lot of thought.
So how exactly does Church create such a strong and effective parallel? Well, the first key is selecting two distinct scenes or moments in time. For Church, these are Providence, Rhode Island, 2005, and Fresno, California, 2013. He sets these clearly and directly, marking the beginning of each section with the location and year. Now that we have our two scenes, or parallel lines, we can start connecting them. Some key links between the two moments for Church are hummingbirds, bombings/threats, mortality, and his children becoming disillusioned to the violent world they live in. Picture it as the graph below:
Each intersecting line, or transversal, makes the parallel stronger and more known. These separate moments, set years apart, fuse together into one story. For instance, one major intersection is the disillusionment of his children. In the first part of the essay, Church realizes his son is listening to the conversations that he is having with his wife about global tragedies. His son is becoming aware of the violent world around him and this is difficult for Church:
“He listened to NPR every morning and heard me ranting at the voices. I didn’t want him to be afraid of war and bombs. I didn’t want him to feel targeted. I wanted him to stay young and innocent and fearless as long as possible. But I also didn’t want to shelter him from the truth or from real danger. I had to prepare him to live in a world where people bombed trains or sporting events or buildings. But how was I supposed to do this?”
This is an extremely poignant moment in the piece, setting up the essay’s “why here/why now” moment later on, when Church addresses that his daughter is probably now experiencing the same disillusionment as his son did all those years ago: “She doesn’t ask the same questions that my son asked years before, but I know from experience that she’s listening. I know she’s absorbing it all.” This connection is extremely central to the story he is trying to tell, making it a powerful use of a transversal. It is an essential tie-back that helps us understand the inner conflict that the narrator is currently facing and basically provides a foundation for the essay.
Near the end of the piece, we see another great example of the two moments intersecting, this time with the hummingbird:
“He may have been small but he thought big and wild and in ways I aspired to match, ways that I still hope to preserve in my daughter and myself. If I could I’d take them both out in the yard the next time a bomb or some other violence tears through the fabric of our days. Just the three of us. Our faces pressed up close to the flowers, and I’d tell them how to do it, tell them to remember the nectar, remember their wings, their imaginations, and the way they can beat against the pull.”
In this moment, the author reflects on his children and how his son’s response eight years ago of wanting to be a hummingbird truly reflects the bigger idea of keeping hope alive in a dark world. While he is technically positioned in the year 2013, he carries ideas from the earlier scene to help us understand the bigger picture. The parallel is reinforced and we, the readers, are able to quite literally read between the lines. And all of it is thanks to basic geometry (and a very skilled writer!)
When using the methods of parallels and transversals in one’s writing, it is important to track each connection and find its significance, much like Church. You must find a few key similarities and draw meaningful and concrete connections for your reader. In this aspect, it is best to start small and build from there. Take the obvious connections, then dig deeper for the next, and deeper again, until you finally reach the core of what you want to say. Church does this, starting with bombings and child disillusionment, then digging deeper to get to the hummingbirds, and finally to the idea of finding hope in a violent world. This process can be a bit tricky, but it is extremely effective and worth your time. And who knows, maybe at the end you will find your own personal “hummingbird,” whatever that may be.
Exercise:
- Take a few minutes and brainstorm a list of significant or memorable moments in your life. These could be happy, sad, or anything in between.
- Then, take any two random memories and try to create a parallel by linking them (feel free to use the graph from earlier!). Really take your time with this and think deeply. Think about who you were with, where you were, what you were wearing, how you felt, what you ate for lunch that day, etc. Make a list of as many you can think of – no connection is too small!
- Now consider these connections. What could they mean? What do they say about you? What do they say about the world as a whole? What could the bigger picture be?
- Finally, take 15 minutes to write about each memory, being sure to include the connecting details. Really focus in on what these memories mean together and what bigger story they could be telling.
Makayla Edwards is a Creative Writing Master’s student at Ball State University, where she also serves as an intern for River Teeth. On the rare occasions that she isn’t reading, writing, or teaching, she enjoys going to the park with her dog Jeff (a rambunctious Aussie-Collie mix) and watching bad rom-coms.
Photo by Dulcey Lima on Unsplash
