All You Have To Do Is Try

Spiral staircase

Sometimes it is easier to see where you have been than where you are going.

The rule is simple, “all you have to do is try.” It doesn’t just apply to food or to my children, it applies to me too.

That is because I can’t ask my kids to do things that I won’t do but it doesn’t mean that I can’t tell them not to do as I have done. That is because one of my responsibilities is to help them avoid making the same mistakes I have made.

Can’t promise they won’t because you can’t screw an old head on young shoulders and they are just as strong willed and determined as I am.

Who, What, Where and Why

It is noon in Texas which means that it is ten in California and my kids probably at the beach now. And if not there, then I am guessing they are tooling around somewhere in San Diego.

While I was hanging out by myself in a theater in Fort Worth watching Wolverine and thinking about how he is still one of my favorite superheroes they were heading out to hang out with family down south.

Yesterday they sent pictures and texts of their time at Legoland and I sat at the computer and worked. Sat here thinking about who I am, what I do and why I am here.

If I was in the service my MOS would help explain why they are there and I am here in terms that are easier to understand or so I tell myself.

Truth is that it is not hard to explain, this is where the work is and where the pay comes from. They stayed behind because it was the sensible thing to do.

Write About What Matters

Last week when I was back in LA my son asked me to tell him again why I couldn’t take advantage of technology to work from anywhere and I told him that while it makes it possible to do so, it doesn’t mean the boss will let you work from a remote location.

He said he didn’t understand why they didn’t trust me to do my work and to talk via phone or video. I told him that sometimes people like to see you face-to-face and he said so do your children.

I understood why he said that and told him that I was working on things that would make this feel like a momentary blip in time. It is true, wasn’t me trying to fool him.

But I didn’t get into all of the details because he really didn’t need to know how to make a clock, just what time it is. And I didn’t want to get into a philosophical discussion about how I was following my own rules.

It was 11 PM and that wasn’t the time to discuss the importance of taking chances and changing things up when the old way doesn’t work anymore.

Books and Writing

I have spent the majority of my weekend reading several different books and exercising. Been caught up in 11/22/63 by Stephen King and not just because I like his writing.

Texas is a big part of the setting and he writes about places I know. Normally I am somewhat jaded about these things, probably because I have seen a million movies that were filmed in places I know, but this time it is different.

Not really sure why, just that it is.

Writing seems to be cyclical for me. I write daily, but there are moments in time where the content explodes from my fingertips as opposed to where it is more of a trickle.

I am never blocked or at a lack for material, but sometimes there is just less production. Don’t know that I consider it to be an issue or problem, just something that I noticed.

More to come about all of this.

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4 Comments

  1. Julie Barrett July 29, 2013 at 2:50 am

    Knocking wood all turns out beautifully in the end.

  2. Jens-Petter Berget July 28, 2013 at 10:37 pm

    I have to read more fiction, and it’s been a while since I’ve read any Steven King. I believe the last Steven King book I read was “on writing”.

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