I don’t write to be famous, I don’t write to be known, I write because I am and I want to be read. How sad to fill a room with paintings no one sees or play music no one hears. Writing is talking without sound, singing without score and dancing without movement and yet, it is all of them. It is a solitary art conjured from thought and expressed by the need to communicate.

HEAD SLAPS, SPEED BUMPS and LIGHTBULBS, one woman's WTF, oops and ah-ha moments of life.

They were published once, and as every writer knows, once is not enough.




Sunday, September 1, 2013

What would I do...clip?



Saw a friend of mine I haven’t seen in ages. She’s been retired for two years.
What do you do all day, I asked her.

My house has never been so clean, she said, my drawers never so tidy. Every afternoon I sit down to eat my lunch and cook dinner every night. The dishwasher is never full. My laundry is folded and put away, my windows gleam, there is no soap scum on my shower walls. My cabinets and closets are organized; my attic and basement are empty. I clip coupons and food shop; we are never out of anything. I walk every afternoon and take naps. The car is polished, the inside vacuumed. The dog is brushed; his bowl is washed and dried each day. Saturdays and Sundays hold no special value and are viewed as just another two days to endure.
But what do you do? I asked.
Nothing, she said, I do nothing.

What if I retired?
What if I didn’t write?
Would I go back to the music I thought would bring me fame, or back to painting which I knew would not? How would I spend the rest of my life...cleaning, clipping and folding my underwear just so?
What would I do?
What would you do if you didn’t write?

7 comments:

  1. I would read and cook and take pictures, but my house would probably look no better than it ever has. I can't imagine spending all day, every day, cleaning. Though if my husband takes it up in his old age, I won't complain.

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    1. Hahaha...clean house = boring life I think, although mine is a mess and my life is not exciting at all.

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  2. Read. I might travel, but probably to places I've read about or where famous authors have lived and died, etc. And I'd read while I was there. I would probably actually try some cooking, even though I'm not a fan. I'm mostly not a fan because it's too time consuming.

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    1. Cooking nah...eating, hell yes. I would weigh 500 lbs easy.

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  3. What would you do if you didn't write?

    Wow. Hm. Thinking. BRB.

    Okay, I'm back. So, the reality for me is this. If I didn't write, it would have to mean I was dead, so I guess my answer is, I'd be floating on the wind in the Blue Ridge mountains, settling into the dirt, nourishing the land, and hopefully come back reincarnated as THE writer of the great American story. :)

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    1. Eeek! Just pinched myself. Thank GOD I'm not dead. LOL! Thank you for those nice words...I doubt it...too many f' bombs in this one to be TGAN. But...one does what one has to do to see if something different makes...the difference.

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