Writing

hmm, only three days into the New Year and I have kind of broken my promise to myself.  I said I would try to write something every day.  As Yoda says, "There is no 'try' only DO"  On a side note, I believe that was one of the tenets of EST, but as usual I digress.

We had breakfast with a friend I have not seen in a while and it was nice catching up.  I will be writing a review of the little coffee shop we went to.  It wasn't the first time I had been there, but I think I just got coffee and a muffin last time.  I watched the Rose Parade and really missed the former hosts.  One guy really needed a history lesson.  The artist who built the Watts Towers was Simon Rodia, NOT Sam Rodeo.    Sheesh.  The floats are displayed in the park at the end of the parade. Maybe next year, if I am feeling stronger, I want to go and look at them.  Apparently it is a real zoo.  We went once, years ago, but got there so late we saw about four floats before the park closed.  I would like to go to the parade, but with seats.  I am too darned old to be dragging chairs onto Colorado Blvd and fighting for space among people who think they can show up late and stand in front of you- this happens to me at every parade I go to.

Last night at dinner, Chris said we should not talk politics for the evening.  It's hard to do.  There is so much to fear with the new Regime.  It's going to be a hard four years if the Orange Menace is left unchecked.   I was thinking about fear and wondering if you manifest it by being afraid, as if that somehow draws the very thing you are afraid of to you.   Probably.  So I am going to think about fear as the  abbreviation of "Face  Everything And Rise"  Rise is a great word, isn't it?  It carries with t a hope and a longing.  I like that word as a command.  We wait for the sun to rise.  We rise from sleep.  We rise up against injustice.  That's going to be the word I try to remember.,   I read quote from T. S. Eliot- a poet whose work I love.

“For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.”

Interesting concept, that we have a whole new language for the new year,   Maybe it means that new voices must come forward to create new ideas for the new year.  I have to re-read "Four Quarters"  I will try to get A book of Eliot's poetry today, although he can be a bit long winded, if I break him down in cantos, I should be able to get through him with a better understanding.

I really have to take a poetry class or something.   I miss talking about poetry and books.  I know there is a Poets Society here, but I don't think that group is for me.  I need to look for something that will stimulate my reading and by extension, my writing.  I COULD take online classes.   Chris says I should be writing short stories and frankly I have been reading them to see if I can get a sense of structure.  Some of the ones I have read recently, by well known authors, are gawd-awful.   I think most short stores are a snapshot of a moment, not something with a beginning , middle and end, sometimes the story just leaves you with a "what was that about?" feeling, like eavesdropping on a conversation on the subway and having to get off before the teller finishes the tale.  I think an online refresher might help.   I took a class in college but that was about 37 years ago so I am a wee bit, shall we say, rusty?

In the meantime, I will continue trying to write here everyday as I collect my morning thoughts over coffee before heading out for work.   I will do my best not to complain without thinking about what can be done and I will offer a peek into what's going on in my head; as mixed up and confusing as some of my thoughts may be.