Seems we're back to almost normal now. The headlines are less about Katrina and more about Britny. Even some of the lesser riske stars are getting some press.
I sometimes wonder what we really mean when we talk about something that is "lifechanging". It seems that I find a way back into my rut quick and easily even though major things have happened. Seismic shifts have taken place and I too quickly yawn and want to flip the channel.
While there is a sense of resiliency in the fact that we can bounce back, it kind of chills me too, that we can so easily become absorbed in trivialities. As if the "new" has worn off and we are looking for the next big "thing" to submerge ourselves in.
I tried to watch the hearings of Judge Roberts but in all honestly, I just wanted some good mud-slinging. I kept hoping that the "unflappable" Roberts would stand up and say to Senator Kennedy, "Nonya beeswax you Boston Bean". Since he kept his cool and didn't say too much of anything, it quickly became academic and I moved onto other more important things to watch, like the 92689 episode of "Law and Order". I think I sometimes feel more affection for the characters on the show than people I really know.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Why I love Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart embodies the very reason that comedy is essential...he can make you laugh when there is so much to think about and ponder about. His antics on his "Daily Show" are a great night cap for me, forcing me to make sure I'm in front of my TV at 10 PM just so I can see who he is making fun of on a particular night. I'd like to meet him sometime but I'd be afraid to -- for fear that I'd end up as the punchline in a fake news segment.
Tonight Lewis Black is making fun of evolution...it seems to be the theme the entire show is hitting on this week. I'll save my comments on what I believe but I have to say, even if I don't agree with the politics, I am always laughing -- which is the genius of the show. You can laugh at yourself and your own politics which keeps one from taking anything too seriously. always a good thing in today's political climate.
The other reason I love the show is because the writing is well done. Which I think is what also makes comedy "comedy". Timing, well thought out lines is writing at its very best. If its funny, it's probably well written. At least that's my opinion.
Tonight Lewis Black is making fun of evolution...it seems to be the theme the entire show is hitting on this week. I'll save my comments on what I believe but I have to say, even if I don't agree with the politics, I am always laughing -- which is the genius of the show. You can laugh at yourself and your own politics which keeps one from taking anything too seriously. always a good thing in today's political climate.
The other reason I love the show is because the writing is well done. Which I think is what also makes comedy "comedy". Timing, well thought out lines is writing at its very best. If its funny, it's probably well written. At least that's my opinion.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Redemption
Working through some details of a the "Creativity Book" by Eric Maisel, I am finding some interesting fodder for my current project. OK, I'm going to go ahead and say it, my current creative project -- (aren't all projects somewhat creative? I dunno.) My novel.
There, I said, it. Ta dah.
Why is so hard to say that? I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I remember breathing. And yet, taking that simple step, simply saying that seems huge to me. So let me try it again.
(Breathe).
I'm writing a novel.
There. I said it again. Double ta dah.
Actually, it might be closer to the truth to say that I'm learning to write a novel, something that I've spent a good part of my life wondering how to do. I often would get to the end of a great read and think, "how do they do that? how did they put all those ideas, all those thouhts together and come up with this story?"
As it turns out, that is the great mystery, the thing called "process" to those in the know about writing. Which is why books like Maisel's are so great..they teach you ideas on how to do the creating.
One of the exercises asked, "what word would best describe your current creative project? find it and post it on your whiteboard and use it for inspiration". Words do create energy (hence the recent debate in the media -- refugees vs. evacuees) so posting a word on a whiteboard seems innocent enough until you start playing with words and shuffling them through. Words like "create" have a different essence to them than words like "abandonment". Words create energy.
The first word in describing my current "project" that I stumbled upon is the word "redemption". Which leads me to a lot of questions, questions that are good to ask. Like what is redemption, really? Is it the same as forgiveness? And what, really, is forgiveness? Is it selective remembering? Or not remembering? Or is it forgetting?
Having been raised in a fundamentalist religious environement, I am poorly prepared to address such questions. Ask me where a bible verse is found or who was the fattest king in Israel or what is the name of the place where Jacob wrestled with God -- I can go on all day. But ask me to talk about the sutff that really matters -- the stuff like forgiveness, redemption and all that such truck, and I'm as blind as they come.
Which is why this theme seems so important to me. Hey, by the time you've reach 40 plus, you're probably in need of a little redemption and a whole lot of forgiveness. And if you're not in need, then you probably need to give it a little, which brings up a whole 'nuther ball of wax...if you can't receive it, you probably can't give and on and on we go.
Whether my novel ever sees the light of day or not, these are the kinds of questions that I find fascinating and that I hope to write more about.
There, I said, it. Ta dah.
Why is so hard to say that? I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I remember breathing. And yet, taking that simple step, simply saying that seems huge to me. So let me try it again.
(Breathe).
I'm writing a novel.
There. I said it again. Double ta dah.
Actually, it might be closer to the truth to say that I'm learning to write a novel, something that I've spent a good part of my life wondering how to do. I often would get to the end of a great read and think, "how do they do that? how did they put all those ideas, all those thouhts together and come up with this story?"
As it turns out, that is the great mystery, the thing called "process" to those in the know about writing. Which is why books like Maisel's are so great..they teach you ideas on how to do the creating.
One of the exercises asked, "what word would best describe your current creative project? find it and post it on your whiteboard and use it for inspiration". Words do create energy (hence the recent debate in the media -- refugees vs. evacuees) so posting a word on a whiteboard seems innocent enough until you start playing with words and shuffling them through. Words like "create" have a different essence to them than words like "abandonment". Words create energy.
The first word in describing my current "project" that I stumbled upon is the word "redemption". Which leads me to a lot of questions, questions that are good to ask. Like what is redemption, really? Is it the same as forgiveness? And what, really, is forgiveness? Is it selective remembering? Or not remembering? Or is it forgetting?
Having been raised in a fundamentalist religious environement, I am poorly prepared to address such questions. Ask me where a bible verse is found or who was the fattest king in Israel or what is the name of the place where Jacob wrestled with God -- I can go on all day. But ask me to talk about the sutff that really matters -- the stuff like forgiveness, redemption and all that such truck, and I'm as blind as they come.
Which is why this theme seems so important to me. Hey, by the time you've reach 40 plus, you're probably in need of a little redemption and a whole lot of forgiveness. And if you're not in need, then you probably need to give it a little, which brings up a whole 'nuther ball of wax...if you can't receive it, you probably can't give and on and on we go.
Whether my novel ever sees the light of day or not, these are the kinds of questions that I find fascinating and that I hope to write more about.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Blame it all on "Law and Order"
It's Monday afternoon. There's a pile of papers in my in-box. And there's a smaller pile in my "out box". And there's an entire checklist on my datebook, that may well stay "unchecked".
For the obsessive compulsive executive, that's as close to a suicide statement as any...leaving unchecked things on a checklist...what?
Sometimes, it just seems that no matter how hard you want to work, the things that distract you are the simplest...a not-too-hot-for-a-change Monday afternoon, a book that's half-read and my personal favorite, spending hours on the "Law and Order" web site. What is it about that show that has me so hooked?
I still have a long way to go before this day is over but something about 4 PM pulls out in me the worst...I get bull-headed (more so than usual, thanks) and outright possessive of my hour and a half that I can sit here and do next-to-nothing and call it "working".
It doesn't matter how much I try to plan my day, 4 PM signals in me the end of the "first half" of the day and the start of the "second half" -- the half that I must feed my family, get afternoon rituals (kids to work, practice, etc) and oh yea, finish out whatever wasn't accomplished during the first half of my day...which today is, not surprisingly from this blog entry, close to nothing.
I am amazingly creative at avoiding work. I can make lists with the best of them. I can plan all sorts of activities in the act of organization. In reality I am creating nothing except a way to stall, a way to plod, a way to self-sabotage on things that truly, truly need my attention.
A seminar to plan that is less than amonth a way.
A class tonight that I'm in no way prepared for.
Appointments tomorrow that I can't even begin to imagine how I'll get it done.
What it boils down to is simply this - procrastination is fear incarnate. Fear of ______ you fill it in -- but whatever it is -- fear of moving forward, fear of checking things off a list, fear of getting something done and finding that it wasn't that hard, and oh, after all, there's 20 more just like that to do...
Fear, pure and simple, is at the base of all the distractions, sidebars, excursions and second lattes.
As much as I don't want to admit it, I'm simply afraid of not knowing where the next lead is going to come from, the next idea, the next inspiration. I find the more that I plod around on cop drama web sites, the more I can hide behind insipid "information" about who is getting married, who is vacationing in the Carribbean and who is planning to be the next guest star.
Diversions as they go, are simply meant to keep us from tackling the big work that is calling to us from those in-boxes, work that when faced probably can tell us a lot more about ourselves than most psychiatry appointments, work that can keep us focused and balanced and all those things that we say - I say -- I want for my life.
Then again, an hour to simply veg may help the synapsis in my brain start firing in all the right ways so that I can be perfectly brilliant at tonight's class, more than prepared for tomorrow's appts and maybe even excited about the new inspiration that starts to creep out at me from around the edges of my work-fried brain.
For the obsessive compulsive executive, that's as close to a suicide statement as any...leaving unchecked things on a checklist...what?
Sometimes, it just seems that no matter how hard you want to work, the things that distract you are the simplest...a not-too-hot-for-a-change Monday afternoon, a book that's half-read and my personal favorite, spending hours on the "Law and Order" web site. What is it about that show that has me so hooked?
I still have a long way to go before this day is over but something about 4 PM pulls out in me the worst...I get bull-headed (more so than usual, thanks) and outright possessive of my hour and a half that I can sit here and do next-to-nothing and call it "working".
It doesn't matter how much I try to plan my day, 4 PM signals in me the end of the "first half" of the day and the start of the "second half" -- the half that I must feed my family, get afternoon rituals (kids to work, practice, etc) and oh yea, finish out whatever wasn't accomplished during the first half of my day...which today is, not surprisingly from this blog entry, close to nothing.
I am amazingly creative at avoiding work. I can make lists with the best of them. I can plan all sorts of activities in the act of organization. In reality I am creating nothing except a way to stall, a way to plod, a way to self-sabotage on things that truly, truly need my attention.
A seminar to plan that is less than amonth a way.
A class tonight that I'm in no way prepared for.
Appointments tomorrow that I can't even begin to imagine how I'll get it done.
What it boils down to is simply this - procrastination is fear incarnate. Fear of ______ you fill it in -- but whatever it is -- fear of moving forward, fear of checking things off a list, fear of getting something done and finding that it wasn't that hard, and oh, after all, there's 20 more just like that to do...
Fear, pure and simple, is at the base of all the distractions, sidebars, excursions and second lattes.
As much as I don't want to admit it, I'm simply afraid of not knowing where the next lead is going to come from, the next idea, the next inspiration. I find the more that I plod around on cop drama web sites, the more I can hide behind insipid "information" about who is getting married, who is vacationing in the Carribbean and who is planning to be the next guest star.
Diversions as they go, are simply meant to keep us from tackling the big work that is calling to us from those in-boxes, work that when faced probably can tell us a lot more about ourselves than most psychiatry appointments, work that can keep us focused and balanced and all those things that we say - I say -- I want for my life.
Then again, an hour to simply veg may help the synapsis in my brain start firing in all the right ways so that I can be perfectly brilliant at tonight's class, more than prepared for tomorrow's appts and maybe even excited about the new inspiration that starts to creep out at me from around the edges of my work-fried brain.
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