Inside me (and each of us) is a drive for creativity. It’s a drive to discover, learn, explore, experience, succeed and fail. For some of us, we have been fortunate to be able to recognize this and understand how to nurture that creativity.
I know people who are way more successful than I am at cultivating their creativity.
Read the rest of this entry »The following is my opinion. It is not backed by figures, or statistics. It’s just what I see happening today in America.
I would not classify myself as a person who is heavily involved in politics. I know and appreciate the need and the value of good and fair politics because I have decent roads to drive on, I have a job and I live in a city where people (mostly) behave themselves. I feel safe most of the time and have food to eat. I’m OK giving credit for these things because some caring, honest, fair politician somewhere saw a need and passed a law.
But, especially this year, I have been less enamored and more disappointed with politicians and the political process. As I sit here approaching the end of 2017, I am a bit saddened by the state of our society and our country.
As part of the Baby Boomer generation, I grew up hearing that America is the greatest country in the world. I never, until recently, had reason to believe that that wasn’t true. Perhaps I just didn’t want to admit it. I want this to be true but, I can’t be sure that it ever will be again. Read the rest of this entry »
For those of you who don’t live where the seasons change, indulge me a bit while I give you an opportunity to exercise your imagination. For those of you who get to enjoy the seasons you may not realize that those who count Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter are missing one or two other seasons.
Between Fall and Winter is a short season called “PutAway” (which I suppose has as its counterpart the period between Winter and Spring called “TakeOut”).
Part of the things that I am thinking about is racism — especially how the concepts of race and justice go together.
I’m thinking about this because at this time in the history of our country, racism is a subject that we are struggling to deal with.
This struggle is brought to light by current social events that seem always to be reported with some hint of racism. Phrases like “white policeman” and “black criminal” as well as “Indian immigrant” and “white privilege” are phrases that you hear as part of just about every news story on television and radio. I hear phrases like “my Indian friend” or “black friends”. This makes me uncomfortable. I think that phrases and reporting like this sometimes makes a bad situation worse.
I like to think that I am good at a lot of things. But, it’s highly likely that I’m bad at way more things than I am good at. Discipline in one of those things that I don’t excel at. For me, discipline falls in the same category as golf, basketball, poker, curling, dancing and and whole lot of other things.
The last time I had a conversation about discipline, I attempted to clarify where I stood by comparing myself and how I struggle with discipline to a pair of shoelaces. I start out tied tight and neat but, as time goes on, I get looser and looser until I become a hazard to myself and need to be retied. Read the rest of this entry »
Facebook and I have a tenuous relationship. I read incoming posts. I almost never put posts on online. I’m a consumer. Not a producer.
The reason? Because, to me, Facebook makes it too easy to generate misunderstanding by breaking two important rules of communication —
Let me clarify with a story:
Recently, I saw a post from someone I was Facebook “friends” with. This person is a public figure in the community and I respect his work — a lot.
This post told a story about a situation that he and his friend experienced. It was a lot like other typical Facebook posts. A photograph with the two Read the rest of this entry »
I assume that everyone who has ever attempted to put pen to paper (or in this case fingers to keyboard) has asked that question.
Why am I doing this and why is it so hard?
I write because the thoughts in my head (whatever they might be at the moment) are usually scrambled and confused.
In my head my thoughts exist in a multi-level building, some connected and others random and not particularly connected to any other thoughts. They reflect the way I think.
My thinking is noisy and confused.
Writing is a way to take these thoughts and force them into a linear organization. One thought comes first and others follow. My work of writing is transferring these thoughts from their disorganized, chaotic noisy world to a world of organization and quiet order.
Writing is a therapy. Just like a walk in the woods or sitting on beach watching the ocean calms the soul and body, so does writing. It defuses the chaos in my head and brings quiet.
Yes, it’s work. Order from chaos is not something that comes naturally or easily to me.
Yes, the journey to the first word is usually hard. But the pleasure, when I realize my mind is at peace again and things have been sorted out is amazing and well worth it.
I think I’ll keep this up. It’s good for the soul.