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Thursday, February 7, 2019

Is a writer still a writer if he isn't writing?

For the last year or so (if I'm honest, nearly two years now) writing has been far more difficult than it should be. By writing, I mean anything that requires putting words in a cunning order. Be that blog posts, letters, novels, or really anything. I managed to complete NaNoWriMo 2017, but it was torture and well, quite poorly written. For NaNoWriMo 2018 I never got past 14k words.

I have always considered myself a writer, not because I had published anything or because I was always writing something, but because I loved writing. Whenever the opportunity presented itself I would write happily away into the night. whether it was instructions on some process or system for work, a letter to someone, a short story, a blog post, or anything the words just poured out (not always good, but easily). This is no longer the case.

Quiet Desperation

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

From the desperate city, you go into the desperate country and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats.

A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind.

There is no play in them, for this comes after work.

But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things."

- Henry David Thoreau

Religion and Politics, two things you should never discuss. Part 1

I enjoy conversation, I savor great conversation but all conversation is worthwhile. Debate is great, there is nothing that gets the blood pumping quite like a lively debate. Debate has the added benefit of solidifying your own thoughts and beliefs and has the potential to change them. How can you truly believe something if you don't understand it?

The Road Goes Ever On and On...

"The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say!"
J.R.R.Tolkien "The Fellowship of the Ring" *

I have been thinking about that song/poem a lot recently. As I head into another birthday... another year older, hopefully, a little wiser, I can't help but wonder where the road ahead must now lead.

The Ending of an Era, the Turning of a Page...

OK so sappy lyrics aside, The past few weeks have been very strange. My youngest children, the twins, have graduated from high school. I am at once very proud of them and yet saddened by the fact that my relationship with them is going to change.

#DealWithIt Presents the Life of a Shy Introvert

Growing up I knew that I preferred to live a bit differently than most of my friends. I have no way of knowing how many of my friends were playing the same game, pretending to be something that they really were not just so they could fit in.

Mid-Week Miscellany

There are a few things that I wanted to put down on digital paper this week. None of them are long enough for a post on their own but they are on my mind so I wanted to toss them all together and see what happens.

The Emotion of Emotion

The other day I was talking with someone and we turned to the subject of people. Wait...no... people that carry drama and chaos with them everywhere they go. I am sure you know the type of which I write.

Spring. My favorite season

I live in Michigan because I enjoy seasons.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I live in Michigan because I was born and raised here. I stay in Michigan because I enjoy seasons. I could never really live anywhere the weather is the same all year long.

Of course, if I could find someplace that was 65 degrees and sunny all year-'round, was surrounded by water, beaches, and had great internet access I would consider moving there. But since, to the best of my knowledge, no such place exists I will stick with Michigan.

Sometimes, even Frasier Crane is right

One of the TV shows I am re-watching my way through right now is Frasier, one of my all time favorite shows.

While most of the time Frasier is a pompous windbag and you have to laugh at him; one episode ("The Friend" [S3.E11]) really struck a chord with me.

The Ritual Is More Important Than The Result…

There is more to coffee than caffeine. More to coffee than hot. More to coffee than Brownian Motion*. Coffee is more about creation than consumption. Most mornings I have just about enough time to pop a coffee pod into the Keurig and press BREW, this is not creation. This is consumption. This is the understanding that I need caffeine NOW and there is nothing for it, no time to savor the creation. However once in a while, there comes a day where creation is king. Weekends were made for Coffee. (This is not coffee, but Coffee, the idea, the dream, the Coffee.) The ritual creation of something so pleasurable that the act of creation is more important than the end result.

The Hobbit Trilogy: Tolkien? or not?

With the release of The Battle of the Five Armies The Peter Jackson Directed Trilogy of Hobbit movies has been completed. With that completion comes the questions, second-guessing, and complaining that one would expect from such an undertaking.

J. R. R. Tolkien, Part one - The Hobbit

As I talked about in my post Books That Captivated My Youth though I grew up reading Sci-Fi the past 25+ years or so have been dominated by Fantasy, or Faerie (Fairy) stories especially the sub-genre Epic Fantasy.

I would like to talk specifically about one author who almost single-handed brought me wide-eyed and fascinated into the world of fantastic fiction.

Weekend Mornings...

Let me start by saying how much I love my family. They are the reason I live, the reason I get up every morning and go to work, and the reason I come back home at night. I can't imagine my life without them. That said though weekend mornings are a time I wouldn't trade for anything.