NOT reading?

What are YOU reading? Curious people wanna know.

                                           

The link below highlights a few "popular" books that the majority of Americans haven't read. Why? Because the majority of Americans aren't readers!

https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/678-books-the-bestsellers-americans-are-and-aren-t-reading#.U-KBxrl0ycw

Have you read THE HUNGER GAMES? Its sequel, CATCHING FIRE?
Howzabout any others on the list?

For me, I'd generally rather ignore the TV and instead be reading. Why?
--expands my horizons
--challenges my world-view
--stretches my vocab
--makes ME think up images that represent the story, instead of TV serving up pictures (and sound) in its soporific, mind-controlling, commercially-driven environment. (if ya wanna know how I really feel about television...well, let me just misquote Stephen King, who calls it the glass pacifier--actual term, "the glass teat." I'll bet your mind just came up with an image!)
--invites me to wonder about an author's meaning, their context, their biography
--helps me to applaud the gift of creativity as we emulate our creator.

Just a Book, and Don't Stir a Muscle (or a Mussel!)

While I drink more tea than I do coffee, I do love that brewed bean beverage!

Thinking about the medical effects of coffee...

“It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity.”
― Dave Barry

Happily, that Dave Barry quote really isn't me--caffeine doesn't do that much other than give me a slight tremor if I've had two cups before eating anything!

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

Abraham Lincoln


A good cuppa joe, a thick book, and see-ya-latah, world! With the emphasis on the book, thick and new and full of intrigue...or, mebbe, a dear old favorite: I've read Tolkien and CSLewis' Space Trilogy many, many times and am already looking forward to my next read-through. Re-read some Shakespeare this year: fun (as long as I remember to read it at high-speed--getting bogged down in archaic language can ruin a good story--which is why I now advocate for reading Wm Shkspr in the graphic novel editions for the obligatory high school courses!)

What is Art?

Perhaps art is seeing the obvious in such a new light that the old becomes new.

--Madeleine l'Engle. WALKING ON WATER, p175.

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Behold, I make all things new. 

--Jesus, in the aptly-named book of Revelation.

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I've learned a ton about art this past decade or so. We've been to museums and galleries in San Diego, Tucson, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Chicago, Boston, and both the Portland and Colby Museums here in Maine. I've been fascinated recently in reading about the intersections of art and world history...and literature, architecture and culture.

Applying the term "art" to all the creative enterprises, l'Engle offers a valid way of getting under one roof all of our open-ended, imagination-fueled pursuits, from painting to poetry, from sculpting to scripting. She also recognizes that there are creative, non-rule-bound creative leaps in the sciences, be they nuclear physics or sub-cellular mechanisms, brilliant computer programming, or the solution to Fermat's "unsolvable" Last Theorem.

Okay, perhaps that's a bit windy--let's try again: Madeleine sees creativity everywhere, in all jobs and tasks. Some jobs are more up-front in the use and need for creativity--other jobs require the worker to be creative in order to not die of boredom!

I also like Madeleine's observations on our reactions to disorder:

  --some see chaos and bring cosmos out of chaos. 

  --others, seeing chaos, only reproduce chaos in their art.

I'd add to l'Engle's thoughts:

  --there are probably many more who, trapped inside chaos, cannot escape it and thus are chaos.

For those of you who like word games...turn "OLD" into "NEW" via one-letter substitutions in the fewest steps possible.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

mebbe not the shortest, but after a coupla missteps:

OLD

odd

ode

ole

owe

............not gonna go.....

OLD

odd

add

and

end

any

ana

............phooey, again....

OLD

odd

old  ode

ole        |

ale        |

are        |

ore   <--

ort

oat

cat

caw

saw

sew

NEW

Cart? Horse? Cart-horse? Horse-cart?

Okay, weird title, but, Elizabeth tells me I've got a weird sense of humor...


The following is a quote from Dan Blank, writing for Writer Unboxed:

There is No Horse and Cart. On Finding Success as a Writer

I worry that the cart & horse analogy is exactly the type of social contract that has long since broken, if it ever existed at all. That you do well in grade school and high school to get into a good college to get a good internship to get a good job which leads to a good promotion which leads to a good salary which leads to a nice house which leads to retirement savings which leads to…this concept that there is a basic, safe, linear order to things that leads to “success.” 

Instead, what I have found from my friends and colleagues: life is complex; trusting relationships are the core of everything; great work is highly respected, but not always rewarded; persistence is key; luck is necessary, but unpredictable; ‘best practices’ are often illusions sold to you so that others can feel like gurus. 

Scott Berkun puts this nicely when we consider actions based on the odds of them working:

“They say most businesses fail in the two years. That most books don’t sell many copies. Why is this surprising? The interesting things in life are hard. Do you want an interesting life? Then you have to accept different odds.”

[end quote.]

+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+

 My only point of disagreement would be to cut the title to..."On Finding Success." The "as a Writer" is unnecessary, eh?

So, what do I need to do differently in order to write more and sell more? Hmmmmm, I am going to pump up my relationships, get a tad more pushy in selling, and write more, every day. I've done a great job this yr of sticking with my "Poem a Day" writing, but the fiction-writing needs more time. So....

buh-bye, gotta hitch my wagon to my horse...or, my horse to my wagon...oh, whatever......gotta go write.

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https://www.facebook.com/AnimalsOfChristmas

Dead Poets?

Is poetry dead...or, are we merely dead to poetry?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering these are all noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life. But poetry beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman,

   O me, O life of the questions of these recurring,

of the endless trains of the faithless,

of cities filled with the foolish...

What good amid these O me, O life?

   Answer: that you are here.,

That life exists, and identity.

That the powerful play goes on,

and you may contribute a verse.

= - = - = - = -= - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - =

as recited by Robin Williams' character

Dead Poets' Society (1989)

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I think we spend a lot of life focused on those "noble pursuits" mentioned above, but we spend the remainder of our time on ignoble pursuits that simply salve the savage beast within. IMHO, the savage beast, like a child or a clock, needs to be wound up and set to RUN!

The creative pursuits, when passively flickering in front of our eyeballs, don't do much for us due to that very passivity--sitting on the recliner or bed, watching the images somebody else has dreamed up for us to watch. Okay, I know, we're not all masterly poets, dramatists, sculptors, painters, or novelists...but, look at this for an example of happy people, out creating art and loving it!

 -

 -=-

 -=-=-=-

 I paint with words

   I follow a meter

I brush my keys

   words flying fleeter,

pictures emerge

   oft rather hazy...

and even for me

words can sound crazy.

I'll try again

   it's cheaper'n paint

and no one to tell me,

   "isn't," not "ain't"!

I paint with words

   hold still, little birds!



(Sorry to be slow--I started this as a minor tribute to Robin Williams, then company showed up and blogging took a seat way in the back of the bus. Appropriately so, but still a bit frustrating.)