My Best Writing
Don’t ask me to provide you with examples of my best writing because I can’t do it. It is not unlike asking me to tell you which one of my children is my favorite. I love them equally, differently and fiercely. The contradiction in that last sentence is intentional. Or maybe it is not.
Can you love equally, differently and fiercely. If you are a person who considers themselves to be logical, rational and methodical that last statement will drive you crazy. You can’t quality, quantify or dignify it with the sort of black and white answer that you might like.
There are no mathematical formulas to rely upon. Science cannot provide you a formula or rationale that you can hang your hat on. You’d be better off asking Bootsie, Cocoa, Smokey and Lizzie to explain it and even then I don’t think that you’d be able follow the answer. Or would it be callous to say that a dog can’t understand a pussy.
That reminds me that I still need to write a song for someone. I once promised to do some sort of Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow and John Denver mashup. Boy meets girl named Annie to sing a song about Country Roads during a weekend in New England. Ah, somewhere down the road I might see about such thing. Just ask Tommy and he’ll tell you that they don’t makem like that anymore.
Sometimes these posts are used to empty the shelves inside that dusty, musty and rusty cobwebbed filled place I call my mind. Yes, I have a mind and I am not afraid to use it. Of course that suggests that sometimes I do choose to do so, use it that is. But more often than not I prefer to let it lie where it is.
I don’t really know what last line refers to, I had intended for it to be different but it didn’t work out. Damn, how often I have faced that. How many freaking times have I tried something and found out that it didn’t work. Of course more times than not I have found that I can “repurpose” whatever it was and use it in a different way.
That is a lesson I pass along to the kids. When it doesn’t work and perseverance can’t make it work for you than try looking at things a different way. Stand on your head, do a somersault, eat a ketchup sandwich, just be different. Or should I qualify it and say that you should just find a different place to stare at the problem. Change the angle of attack, adjust your perspective and you find that solutions present themselves. Sometimes it is a solution to a different problem than the one you were working on.
Maybe I shouldn’t call this my best writing. Maybe I should call this my favorite writing. It is seven minutes of just typing out thoughts and ideas. Got a bunch that need to be turned into a proper post. Stay tuned ‘cuz you are going to want to read those.
CK_Lunchbox July 26, 2010 at 1:03 pm
By your analogy I must be a bad parent. There's so much of my writing that I hate – some because it's just crap, and some because what I've written is stuff in my head I don't want to face or admit to.
I've been in a writing rut of late and trying too hard to make things work (hence, a lot of ugly babies). Time for a ketchup sandwich.
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TheJackB July 25, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Favorite phrases and sentences- I suppose that I have several of those. There is probably some piece of software out there that provides an analysis of writing. We could probably use that to identify the most common phrases in our posts.
Kelly July 25, 2010 at 1:45 am
I understand equally and differently. For the kids and the words. I don't have a favorite piece of writing, but I do have favorite phrases and sentences. My home runs, so to speak. Definitely favor those!
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