A LITTLE HUMOR

A friend sent the following the other day, and I thought I’d share…

WHERE I MAY GO....

I’ve been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I've made several trips, thanks to my friends, family, etc. I live close so it's a short drive.

I'd like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore.

I've also been in Doubt. That's a sad place, and I try not to visit too often.

I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm.

Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older.

One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get!

And sometimes I think I'm in Vincible, but life shows me I'm not.

People keep telling me I'm in Denial, but I'm positive I've never been there before!

So far, I haven't been in Continent; but my travel agent says I'll be going soon.

There’s a lesson here, and it’s more than simply having fun with words. Or having “pun” as the case may be.

Sometimes we take words (and life) too seriously. I belong to several on-line groups for writers, and some of the members take things much too seriously. One guy submitted an entry the other day that I think some members are still trying to translate into normal, every day English. The rest of us gave up about half way through.

This is meant to be a light-hearted blog. February’s here and baseball will soon be back. Flowers will peek out of Mother Earth and spring will creep around the corner. So make today a fun day. Go wherever you want!

BLOCK OR EMBARRASSMENT?

Writer’s Block. Oh, what a horrible term! If you let your imagination run amok (which most writers do), it conjures up visions of a monolith blocking your path. No way around it! No way under it, over it or through it! Oh, please, somebody throw me a stick of dynamite!

I’m a member of several writer’s groups on LinkedIn, and there have been discussions on writer’s block and how to avoid or survive it. One suggestion I found helpful came from Richard Castle, the fictional author portrayed by Nathan Fillion on the TV show Castle.

“I don’t believe in writer’s block. I believe in writer’s embarrassment. That’s when you’re so embarrassed by the horrendous drivel you’re writing that you can’t bear to see it on the page. After all, you can always write something. I’ve discovered that giving yourself permission to write poorly is the gateway to writing well. It may not be good, it may not make sense, but that’s okay. After enough pages of meaningless drivel, your brain will uncover something interesting, and before you know it, you’re off and writing again.”

Good advice from a fictional writer of fiction.

I’ve written pages and pages of drivel. Chapters of crap. As I write it, I know it’s crap, and I’m thinking, “At some point I’m going to hit ‘delete’ and wipe all this out.” But I keep going because this is a writing lesson and I’m determined to learn it.

It reminds me of the story of the twin boys, one a pessimist and the other an optimist. One Christmas the pessimist received every toy imaginable, yet he was deeply depressed. When asked why, he replied, “I know every one of these toys will break eventually.” His brother’s gift was a pile of manure, and his parents found him delightedly flinging it in all directions because “there’s gotta be a pony in here somewhere!”

Yes, I’m embarrassed by the drivel—but not for long. At some point I’ll find that pony.