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Running Toward Writing, Running Away From Writing
Have you ever reached one of those assessment points where you try to decide what’s next—“Maybe I SHOULD raise chinchillas for a living!”—pretending of course, that one can gracefully pivot to the next thing like Nureyev, when most of one’s pivots have been more like Curly in the Three Stooges.
You likely caught me saying “one” here when I mean me. After a long spell of writing, editing and preparing for publication my memoir of my high-school shoplifting business, I’m working on promoting the dang thing. But the bell clanging with equal loudness in my head is trying to determine if this writing thing, the thing I’ve done for more than half my life, for love and for money, is the thing I should continue. Or continue in the same fashion.
In mulling whether to keep on keeping on, same as it ever was, I tried to look up any statistical basis for this notion: that non-meteorologists have as high a degree of accuracy as the pros in simply saying that tomorrow’s weather will be the same as today’s. I couldn’t find the stat, but I did find a Chuck Palahniuk quote: “Just for the record, the weather today is calm and sunny, but the air is full of bullshit.”
I think my mental air might be filled with that stuff too, because it’s hard to make a clear-cut decision on big-picture plans without filtering out the fears, anxiety and projections (guesses) on what’s to come. That old saying, “We plan, God laughs” can be instructive.
Sure Things? Nah.
Writing for a living can be an iffy business. I was surprised to have sent out a number of article pitches before my sweetheart, Alice and I went to Malta to house-sit for a few weeks, and not to have received a “yes” from any editors. These are perilous publishing times, to be sure, but Malta has a distinct whiff of the exotic, and having sold a lot of travel pieces, this seemed like a sure thing.
But there are no sure things.
I do have another memoir in me, because I had 30+ years of crazed correspondence with the Jack Daniel’s Distillery (including them sending me things like a rabbit’s foot, chewing tobacco, an album of mournful Appalachian folk songs, and more) that deserves the telling. I will do that one, unless the chinchilla farm passion overwhelms me.
But marketing copywriting, editing books? Not sure, but maybe no. Pitching articles? Not sure, but still likely.
How ‘bout you? Are you at one of those seeming forks-in-the-road points where you need to take a Robert Frost turn, maybe to take the road less traveled by?
Linking for Thinking
Continuing the "make your inner and outer worlds better places" theme of these curated links, here are the latest. May some of these articles provide some sense of solace and self-care.
But as of next month, I'm mixing good writing articles along with the self-help sauce.
How to become more open-minded and willing to change
"But the moment we become certain about something, our life energy gets channeled into maintaining certainty at all costs, even in the face of massive change. This magnifies and amplifies anxiety.”
What Is Slow Living?
"Excessive work is associated with burnout: a condition that only worsened during the pandemic as work shifted to virtual spaces and began permeating personal lives with ever-increasing reachability and nebulous work hours."
Is Happiness Really a Choice?
"Our cultural context and mindset matter a lot, which may explain why those who invest in the happiness of others, not just their own, report greater fulfillment in their lives. To paraphrase, no person is an island unto themselves. Living in a chaotic, divisive, rancorous, greedy society inhibits any one person’s pursuit of happiness."
Why You Should Make Meditation a Long-Term Habit
"One of the first studies published on MBSR found that the brain regions controlling attention, sensory perception, and sensory processing were thicker in participants with a long-term meditation practice, signifying a lower risk for cognitive decline."
Here’s Why Maintaining Your Balancing Skills As You Age Is Tied to Longevity
"Though scientists aren’t exactly sure why, practicing and achieving good balance has been shown to improve certain brain functions—particularly, memory and spatial cognition. One potential explanation is the fact that balancing requires different parts of the brain to fire together, as it takes in sensory inputs from all over the body. And that process may strengthen neural pathways, boosting neuroplasticity (aka the brain’s ability to wire and rewire itself)."
How to Kick a Bad Habit
"Remember: Awareness without action is insanity. But trying something new creates possibilities. I didn't know what it would feel like to stop drinking until I did."
