The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for July 2012

The Day Jack Suffered From Writer’s Block

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They didn’t believe the day would come when Jack, captain of the mighty sailing ship “TheJackB” would succumb to writer’s block. It seemed virtually impossible that such a day would come.

It wasn’t just because he said it never happened but because they had never seen it happen. That crazy man could produce content at a ridiculous pace that made people wonder what the hell was going on with him.

Some whispered that he had made a deal with the devil and that in return for his soul he was granted immunity from the curse of the empty page. Others suggested that it wasn’t that at all. They said that Jack had gained the ire and enmity of a gypsy. They said the gypsy had laid multiple curses down upon him and that was why he was so restless.

They said that he ran four other blogs besides his main one and that he almost never slept. They said that some times people would find him passed out, face down upon his keyboard.

Some of those who claimed to know him best said that none of those things were true. They said many years before he had been the Dread Pirate Roberts and that he had sailed around the world.

The Indian barque Tarangini passing under the ...
The Indian barque Tarangini passing under the Newport Bridge — Narragansett Bay, RI, USA — folowed by the Prince William and Picton Castle. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

They said that in a time that once was and on an island that can’t be found he fought with the Shaman of the tribe that lived there. They said it wasn’t because he tried to plunder the riches of the island. They hadn’t stopped there to do more than find fresh water and pick some fruit.

The natives had attacked the crew, killing most and capturing many. Jack couldn’t let that go. He had an obligation to his crew and a reputation to uphold. No one took on the Dread Pirate Roberts with impunity.

So he led a daring rescue mission in which he saved many lives and created a deeper bond with the men who sailed with him. Those who came back described the final battle between Jack and the Shaman as having been the sort of tale that people wouldn’t believe. Even those who witnessed it wondered what was real and what was illusion.

They said that Jack wanted to spare the life of the Shaman but there was no way to do so without inviting severe risk to himself and the crew. Just before he died the Shaman screamed and flames shot from his eyes. They couldn’t understand what he was saying, but it was clear that it wasn’t a blessing.

Later on Jack refused to speak about the battle. All he would say was that there was a price to be paid for his actions and he was willing to pay it.

Stop Talking About Yourself In The Third Person

During the past couple of days I have written close to 6,000 words or so. The content has just been flowing from my fingertips and I am feeling a bit spent.

To be fair some of what I have been working on includes material that I had been saving for such an occasion so I didn’t create everything from scratch but I did spend a decent chunk of time trying to weave it all together into something that didn’t resemble a patchwork quilt.

One of the reasons I save my drafts is that I often find ways to use them later on. Here is a partial list of some of the posts that are sitting in my drafts folder:

  • It Is The Thought That Counts
  • What Are Your Priorities?
  • The Sins Of The Father
  • The Call Of The Hierophant
  • Three Generations of Men and A Movie
  • The Family Dinner
  • The Relationship Between Father’s Day, Marketers and Storytellers
  • Don’t Put The Cart Before The Horse
  • Meet Me In The Echoes Of The Future
  • A Ten Dollar Cup of Coffee
  • Where Is Your Focus?

I have a bunch of tricks that I use to keep my mind clear and my pencil sharp. These silly stories like the one above or the fictional battle at Starbucks are among my favorites. Those stories are fun to write because I don’t rely upon them to pay the bills.

They are what I use to stretch my writing muscles. It is like a warm up for me.

Sometimes I like to roll through the blog and read old posts and see if they inspire me. There isn’t any rhyme or reason to it, I just grab them and run. For example here are a bunch that I just stumbled onto again:

What Was The Point Of This Post?

Contrary to popular belief, not every post has to have a point. Sometimes it is fun to just write with reckless abandon and see where you end up. If it would make you feel better the point of this post was to share a few thoughts about writer’s block and how to deal with it.

I don’t suffer from it because I don’t believe in it. We can talk about it later, but if you train yourself to look at writing and the world in a different way you find it doesn’t exist.

That doesn’t mean that you will never question the quality of your work because you will. Every good writer has more than a few moments where they look at their content and wonder if a team of drunk monkeys could produce something better, but that is a topic for a different day.

What do you think?

Linked up with Dude Write Six.

The Secret Sits

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We dance round in a ring and suppose,

But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.

Robert Frost

Yeah, I have secrets. Not just one, two or three but somewhere close to a hundred. Not sure how or why it happened, but I know that it did.

Some of it is just because of how I was raised and some of it is just how it works, life that is.

People have secrets, even those who say they don’t really do. They might not realize it but if you ask the right questions you’ll stumble upon them.

Most of my secrets aren’t really important. You wouldn’t call them important but for the request of another. They are secrets I share.

Perhaps the reason they aren’t important to me is because they aren’t mine. Maybe it is a mischaracterization to lay claim to them. Maybe it is more accurate to provide a different answer.

I don’t really know and I don’ think it matters. I keep them because they are important to the people who asked me to put them in my vault. Those requests come from people I love and hold close to my heart so I treat their secrets like my own.

But the few secrets I call my own are big. They are huge and at times they have made me wonder what I got myself into.

There is one that sits in the middle of the ring that Frost wrote about. It stares at me with eyes that cut through the poker face I try to maintain.

It demands my attention and asks for a declaration of intention. This is not something I can just ignore or forget. It requires more because to pretend it didn’t exist is to dishonor it and that I cannot do.

For a long while I have ignored my gut and the knowledge that one day the secret would break free of the shackles I placed upon it and force me to face it.

I don’t want to say I am afraid of it because fear is a weakness and men don’t like to be weak.

Yet the only way to figure out why it bothers me is to look at it during the daylight hours. The day is coming when I’ll do that and then we’ll find out if what I sense is real and discover if I am going to end up where I always suspected I would be.

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This was for The Write Edge. It was a prompt based upon the Frost poem quoted above. We had a word count of 450 words.

The Kind Of Friend You Want To Be

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Friends

Sometimes I am guilty of trying to write the kind of post that makes you cry, but not always. There are other moments that I try to write something inspirational and or humorous.

Those are moments that I try to avoid because they usually don’t produce the results I want. It is like trying to force a feeling. I can’t make you love me and even if I could that is not how I want to be.

My best moments in writing come when I just let myself be and I write about whatever it is I am writing about.

It reminds me of friendship. It reminds me of remembering not to try too hard because the people that like us will do so because of who we are and not because of what we have.

Dad’s Words of Wisdom

It is a discussion I have had more than once with the children. We talk about what is going on in school and sometimes I hear stories about mean girls and boys who aren’t nice.

I tell the children to try to be the kind of friend you want to be. These aren’t just words to me or something you say out of obligation. I mean them.

In part it is because I have been very fortunate to have some of the best friends a person can have. I have blogged about them before, some recent and some less so. One day my children will read this blog and posts like What Kind of Friend Are You? will help reinforce what I am talking about, but that is years down the road.

These discussions have to happen now. I can’t shield them from everything and life forces you to confront the end of their innocence at a pace that isn’t always in sync with when you would choose to make the change.

I suppose it is part of why I write letters to my children.

Be Your Own Advocate

When I talk with the kids and friends about the rules of the game I often mention the need for us to serve as our own advocates. If we don’t do it then who will.

But the question is how to do it in a fashion that isn’t obnoxious but is still effective. I don’t know that I have an answer for that. It is a subjective question. It is something we all have to figure out how to do.

It is part of why I blog. It is part of how I figure out what is important and necessary. It is part of how I determine what direction I wish to take and what pace I wish to walk or work at.

My Friends Read My Blog

Very few of my real life friends read this blog. In part that is because I have kept it away from most of them, but that is not what this is about.

This is about the lesson I have learned about being the kind of friend I want to be online as well as offline. This is about acknowledging that I have made many friends online and although we don’t hang out in person we meet here with more regularity than I get to see those real life friends.

That doesn’t take anything away from them. It is part of the nature of this online world we walk around in. It is easy to meet here. It is like being back in school. It is a central gathering place that we can hit.

So when I say my friends read my blog I can do so with complete honesty. I can say I am trying to be a good friend online and offline. I am trying to be the kind of friend I want for me and for my children.

When I opened my eyes possibilities turned into opportunities and I am glad to share it with you.

This post is part of Yeah Write #66 one of my favorite writing communities.

Don’t Try This In Public

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Orazzib The Fiendish Clown

Sometimes I like to walk into a room, climb on top of a table or chair and shout: “And so it begins!”

Please note that if you do this in a coffee shop you might receive the sort of response you don’t want to get…unless you are carrying a bat, mop or sword.

Not that I know anything about this from personal experience, but if I did I might have one heck of a story to tell you.

Where Are the Cameras?

He looked like he was about 25 or so. He was a skinny kid with a baseball cap, some tattoos and multiple piercings around his body. Thirty years ago he would have made people nervous, but not anymore.

That is because half the people you pass on Melrose look just like him. Kind of funny to look at someone who put so much effort into trying to be different and realize they are just another clone.

He was the first to offer a significant response to my challenge. No one cared when I climbed on to the table. There were no looks from customers nor warnings from baristas to get down.

Blame it on Hollywood. No one notices the weird and unusual. It is just another day in the city.

“And so it begins” was the difference.

My voice is deeper than most. I don’t have to work hard to be hard and when I raise it slightly people notice. Maybe there was some sort of chemical in the air that went with it.

Maybe it was some sort of primal instinct responding to the challenge issued by the pack leader. I don’t really know. What I can tell you is that he asked me where the cameras were and rushed the table.

That was a mistake. If he had thought about it he might have recognized that I held the higher ground or noticed that my hands are made for hauling iron and his are for more delicate things.

But he didn’t and well I didn’t care. Why should I. I was the one who issued the initial challenge and I was prepared.

I knew that he would swing at my legs and try to take them out from under me. I watched it all unfold like it was in slow motion. When he swung his arm I stepped aside and then slapped him on the back of his neck.

It wasn’t supposed to hurt him. That was a love tap. It was a wake up call and it did all that I asked it too.

He went flying by the table and crashed into the couple who were sitting across from us. I watched him go face first into her ice coffee and giggled when he stood up with a nose covered in whipped cream.

“You mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!”

I know, it is not the most original insult but if it worked for the geniuses of Monty Python that is good enough for me.

Young, dumb and covered in cream roared something in return and came running towards me. It was a mistake. Not only have I watched lots of movies I have seen the videos of the guys who run with the bulls.

The reality is they are running away from the bull and not towards them. That is because when you mess with the bull you get the horns and that works just fine for me.

After all I am a Taurus.

When he charged me I stepped to the side again and placed a well aimed kick into his behind and sent him crashing again into a different table. When he didn’t get up I mulled over walking out of the joint with my head held high, but I just couldn’t help myself.

I climbed back up on my table and yelled, “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father! Prepare to die!”

Moments later I was armed with a nearby mop and was doing my best to fight off two more young bucks, one of whom held a broom and the other a rather sad looking croissant.

Now I have to tell you that I felt badly for them. I am the guy who beat the flying clown and proved that a salami can be a fearsome weapon.

Anyone with a lick of sense would have ignored me, but not these lads.They had to follow in the sad footsteps of the pierced poseur and that mean they had to go down.

Let’s face it we men have egos and no one wants to gets their butt handed to them in front of some beautiful babes. I know that I don’t and there was no way I was going to lose to a guy who armed himself with a croissant.

Hell, I told Frenchie to just get it over with and surrender but he wasn’t smart enough to listen to common sense, nor was the guy with the broom.

Well it took about five more minutes for me to hand those fellas their just rewards for messing with me, but I did it. And then when it was done I made a point to check them for six fingers.

I figured if the police came I could show them the six fingered man and I would be ok, exonerated of all charges. Sadly neither one of them had six fingers on their hands.

What Makes A Cop Nervous

You know what makes a cop nervous?

Me.

Really, I do. You see they don’t like it when their Tasers don’t work on you, but what they hate even more is when you take their billy clubs away from them.

Unless you are prepared to face the consequences, try not to do it. They act like spoiled children when you take their toys from them. And the whining is simply awful.

So do yourself a favor and don’t try this in public.

If You Could Do Anything What Would You Do?

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Juggling

If you could do anything what would you do is a question that vexes me because it tugs on two different sides of me with reckless abandon.

It touches upon the dreamer who doesn’t accept limitations and is willing to run through walls and will dance in the fire for as long it takes to get it done.

But there is that other piece that says, “slow down cowboy and deal with what you know is real.” I hear that voice and I nod my head because it is sensible to take a step back and try to focus on the things that are possible and ignore that which isn’t.

Yet every time I do that a piece of me dies a slow death. It reminds me of decades of playing football without pads and repeating the mantra that you only get hurt if you are scared.

Calm your nerves, quiet the whispers and run across the field without fear and all will be well.

It works. I know from experience. More than 30 years of playing tells me that there have been sore muscles, some bruises and one dislocated finger.

My grandfathers and father told me many times that I was being foolish and that one day it would catch up to me. I laughed and told them that I would fight the devil himself and prevail because that is just how it is.

I see them shake their heads and I understand because I would tell my son not be a fool. It is foolish talk and no one outruns life forever.

Balance Can Be Had

Balance cannot be found in everything but in this area it can be. I can marry these two schools of thought. I can find a place where it is comfortable for all of us and that is what I try to do.

My approach is to look at the question in simple terms.  It is not about what superpower I want but how I want to live my life. That is the root of the question. If you could live anywhere, with anyone and do anything what would those things be.

I suppose this is part of why I want to live to be 1,000. There are lots of places I want to live and things that I want to do. I want to live long enough to become an expert and an authority on these things. I want to spend enough time living in these places that I am not a tourist or newcomer.

That is all fine and good but it doesn’t answer the question in the way that it needs to be answered. That answer is subjective and will be different for all of us.

I am willing to share some of these thoughts with you but not all of them. Some of what I am working towards will remain unspoken and unwritten. That is not because I am afraid to share it but because we all need to secure pieces and parts of ourselves for those who matter most and no other.

The general focus here is to do the things that feed my soul and make my heart swell. It is to live a life of as much love and laughter as a man can experience.

It is why I keep pushing myself to become a better writer. It is why I focus on the creative side.

Responsibilities Versus The Song of My Heart

There are little people that lean on me. They expect me to love them unconditionally and to keep them safe from harm. They expect me to listen to their stories and to teach them things about life and living.

It is an obligation I never forget about. It doesn’t upset or anger me. I knew what I was doing. I wanted children, more than I have now.

But that doesn’t mean that I love mine any less. It is not even a question.

What is challenging is trying to figure out how to give them what they need and deserve while not losing sight of myself and my dreams. There is no guide or map book for this.

Some of this falls into the category of learn by doing. There are moments when being a parent is a bit like walking through a dark forest at night without a flashlight or moon.

You do your best not to trip too many times and hope that you don’t get scraped up too badly. Those mysterious crunches and the things you  sense lurking sometimes make you uncomfortable, but you ignore them and keep moving ahead because that is what is required.

When I Close My Eyes

I tell my children the goal is to fall asleep knowing that we did our best and that even when we have a bad day that should be enough. It is harder for me to accept it, but I try.

It works best when I know that I am doing my best to live in sync with the life I want to live.

What about you? If you could do anything what would you do?

This is part of Just Write #44.

Using Content To Build Connections

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Awkward

There are two basic ways to build connections between ourselves and others.

  1. Use our content to help create connections between ourselves and the people that visit our blogs.
  2. Visit other blogs and comment on the content there.

I think about this for a variety of reasons but sometimes it is because people ask me to define myself as a blogger. They want to know what my focus is and what my goals are.

It is a reasonable question. I belong to multiple communities but I often feel like I am not really a member of any of them. Don’t know if the reason why matters or not.

What is important to me is that I enjoy what I am doing and that I see it as providing growth opportunities too. It is part of why I cover so many different topics but every now and then I wonder if it would be more beneficial to focus again on a particular area.

Monday was an awful day for my traffic. Summer is naturally slow but this seemed to be a more substantive drop than normal. I’ll keep an eye on things and see it continues or if this was an anomaly.

Much as I would like to say I never notice these things it wouldn’t be true. This joint generates income so I need to be aware of what things looks like around here so that I can adjust and or respond accordingly.

But overall I think that I still do a decent job of writing what about what I want and basing it upon the stats. If you are new to the blog and want to get a sense of what you can find here you are always welcome to check my About me page.

In addition you can always take a look at the following posts:

Some of you will take the time to sift through these posts and decide to join the community because these posts resonate with you. Some will look at them and wonder why anyone likes me.

That is fine. It is normal. We can’t be all things to all people.

But what we can use our posts to share stories about ourselves and to provide little lamps of light that highlight pieces of the puzzles that make us who we are.

And more importantly if we are smart we will pay attention to these connections and work hard to nurture them and help them grow. The longer I am a part of this planet the more apparent it becomes that life is a hell of a lot sweeter when we can share it with others.

What do you think?