Pulaski Bridge, Brooklyn, NY. Photo Taken by Lisa Ortiz.

This past Sunday, I participated in my first 5 boro bike tour. If you had asked me 5 years ago if I would participate in something like this I would have said, “HECK NO.” Just like that too, especially b/c my fitness level as of late has not been… well… for lack of a better word… decent. The last time I participated in any sort of athletic competition was in college but I was pretty fit then and still would get scared right before an event.

But after a 50-mile round trip bike trip to the Bronx’s City Island last year (where my child psychologist friend gently asked why I was crying at mile 49), I figured 40 miles was a piece of cake.

Many thoughts, raced through my mind as the day approached. Those bridges – eek. Will I be able to climb them? Oh my – what if I end up having to walk up all the hills? Oh gosh – what if I’m so slow that that truck that comes around picking up all the slow people at the end so that they can re-open the roads has to be pick ME up?! Oh gosh – why did I tell people I was doing this?!

Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, NY. Photo taken by Lisa Ortiz.

Well, thankfully, I finished the tour with plenty of time to spare and no truck in sight. But what was even MORE amazing was that I was able to climb those hills, especially all of those bridges NON-STOP. After I got to the top of the upper roadway of the Queensboro Bridge one of my friends said “Good job! The Verrazzano is 10x worse than that!”

So I wouldn’t say it was a piece of cake, especially the last 10 miles on the uphill-downhill-BQE-to-the-never-ending-all-uphill-except-for-the-last-100-feet Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, BUT! It was definitely a TON of fun.

And what was even better is that it made me realize that I’m much stronger than I’ve given myself credit for which is super cool and inspiring, to say the least.

Next up: a 100 mile bike tour through the Rockies. NOT.

Design is everywhere. Our bodies are designed; our planet is designed; the universe is designed. Everything that we come into contact with in our everyday lives is designed: beds, sheets, pillows, slippers, sofas, coffee makers, garbage bags, cups, chairs, tables, computers, buildings, cars, buses, shirts, pants, jeans, paper clips, stamps… the list is endless. Yet so many are so unaware of the importance of design.

There is a common misconception that if you know the right tools, you can design. And there is an even more common misconception that design is simply making things look pretty. Neither could be further from the truth. Design is about problem solving, strategy, function.

As a user experience designer, especially in the ever-evolving digital landscape, it can be a challenge to educate clients on what design entails. It can even be a challenge to educate other designers. This is why relationship-building is key. Not to say that there aren’t other elements that go into education (ie. skillset, articulation, clear understanding of the goals, etc.) but those should go hand-in-hand with relationship-building. The client needs to trust the designer. It takes time but when done well, can produce a rewarding experience and, hopefully, a great product.

2nd Grader: Lisa! I want to be your partner!

[Pulls away a second, touches my stomach]

2nd Grader: You have 2 stomachs!

Me: [speechless for a second or 2...] Why yes I do….

Fellow Mentor to My Rescue: I have 2 stomachs too!

[2nd grader feels her stomach(s) to confirm this]

2nd Grader: But I don’t. I only have one.

Me: You just wait till you get to be our age and you will have 2 stomachs too.

[2nd grader runs over to 3rd mentor to feel her stomach]

2nd Grader: But Rebecca doesn’t have – oh wait. Yes she does.

—-

design is not window dressing.

design is not about making things pretty.

design is about problem solving.

I don’t believe in shoving my beliefs down someone else’s throat (although, there are times when I really would like to) so I won’t be doing that here. It’s been my experience that if people want to know more about why I believe what I believe or even just what I believe, then they will ask. Sometimes it naturally comes up in conversation. In either situation, I’m more than happy to share.

But, I am definitely on the quieter side in sharing and I most likely will continue to be b/c that is who I am too! “Quiet Lisa” I’d like to think of myself as — of course, my close friends will say there is nothing quiet about me, particularly when it comes to my faith.

Now, c’mon now. Not every blog post will be about my faith. I’ll still continue with random silliness or air my complaints (that’s really what I’m best at) or even write about design (as I claim I will in my tagline). But here I need to be free to be myself completely: that is, a silly, good-at-complaining, high maintenance girly girl who happens to be a born again Christian.

Mmmhmmmmm.

—

I’ve decided that I use the word “beautiful” much too often.

I’ve described many things as “beautiful”: photographs, people, designs, technology, art. However, after reading Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead“, I realized that I needed to curb my use of the word because what other word could aptly describe this book and do it justice? Not that my use of the word “beautiful” in the past was ever inappropriate but it’s a word I have over-used and by doing I think I’ve diluted it’s meaning and impact.

“Gilead” is a carefully architected piece of literature. It’s not the most fascinating book I’ve read nor is it hurried. Cautious and intricate in emotion, it’s comprised of letters from a dying minister to his young son. Hoping to fill the fatherless void that will be left by his imminent demise, the father details for his son their life story, their family history, his hopes for him, instruction, his own struggles and fears. He’s open, honest and humble.

Here are a few excerpts:

“So my advice is this – don’t look for proofs. Don’t bother with them at all. They are never sufficient to the question, and they’re always a little impertinent, I think, because they claim for God a place within our conceptual grasp. And they will likely sound wrong to you even if you convince someone else with them. That is very unsettling over the long term. ‘Let your works so shine before men,’ etc. It was Coleridge who said Christianity is a life, not a doctrine, words to that effect. I’m not saying never doubt or question. The Lord gave you a mind so that you would make honest use of it. I’m saying you must be sure that the doubts and questions are your own, not, so to speak, the mustache and walking stick that happen to be the fashion of any particular moment.”

—

“I do enjoy remembering that morning. I was sixty-seven, to be exact, which did not seem old to me. I wish I could give you the memory I have of your mother that day. I wish I could leave you certain of the images in my mind, because they are so beautiful that I hate to think they will be extinguished when I am. Well, but again, this life has its own mortal loveliness. And memory is not strictly mortal in its nature, either. It is a strange thing, after all, to be able to return to a moment, when it can hardly be said to have any reality at all, even in its passing. A moment is such a slight thing, I mean, that its abiding is a most gracious reprieve.”

—

Beautiful.

well, here i am, a little over a year later… and it’s been nearly 3 months since my last post.

why is there so much in between my posts? well, i haven’t been able to think of anything to write about! i mean, i guess that’s not entirely true. there are things for sure: silly things… serious things…. random things… senseless things… but then it requires time and energy and thought and… well, i’ve just been lazy. but since i do need to get back into the habit of writing/posting regularly…

may i present the return of the hc.

hc story #78: there once was a fish who had a lightbulb. the end.

I love to read. I always have.

When I was a child, probably around the ages of 5 or 6, I would write my own stories (as best as any 5 or 6 year old can), draw pictures alongside of them (in the style of the picture books I owned of course) and then staple the pages together so that it seemed like a real book. As I got older, books like The Secret Garden, The Nancy Drew Series, The Sweet Valley Twins, the E.B. White books, books by Beverly Cleary & Judy Blume were among my favorites. In high school my interest in books aligned with whatever was handed down in English class: Hawthorne, Emerson, Hardy, Shakespeare were the natural favs. I was never big on poetry (although, Robert Sean Leonard & Ethan Hawke did help pique my interest a bit there). And then in college, my interests became more philosophical and period-centric as an English major.

These days, my interests have taken on a wide range of genres: from the fun, frilly girly book (thank you Sophie Kinsella!) to historical fiction to biographies & auto-biographies to theology.

One of my newly favorite authors is C.S. Lewis. I remember reading some of the Narnia books in elementary school (I went to a private, Christian school for grades K-4), but my young mind could not possibly grasp the meaning behind the allegories prevalent throughout the series. In college, I read The Screwtape Letters, but again, it’s deeper meaning went over my head as did an appreciation for, what I’ve come to currently regard as, the genius of Mr. Lewis.

Over the last year, I’ve read several of his books, amongst them being The Great Divorce, Till We Have Faces, and a re-reading of The Screwtape Letters.  I think it was Till We Have Faces that pushed me into the Lewis fan club. The subtitle is “A Myth Retold” as it is a retelling of the Greek mythology of Cupid and Psyche, told from the perspective of Psyche’s older sister, Orual.

Throughout the book, the ugly Orual has an unhealthy, possessive love for her beautiful, younger sister Psyche, which, eventually, comes to harm Psyche. Orual is incredibly bitter over the fate met her and Psyche and hopes that, by chronicling her seemingly unjust tale, the injustice of the gods will be brought to light and rectified.

After laying out her entire argument before the god of the mountain who she finally meets at the end of her journey, Orual writes:

“I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?”

This, I believe, is the most beautiful statement and moment in the book. Whatever one claims to believe (agnosticism, atheism, etc.), I don’t think that it is possible for one to come to a different conclusion than she does at that moment.

That impossibility is what amazes me about Lewis: there is a remarkable depth of insight into the human psyche in each of his books which can be understood by all audiences and the conclusions reached by the end are seemingly incontrovertible.

I’m encouraged and inspired as I read and re-read his work and expect that the more I delve into his writing, the more of a fan I’ll become.