Those Who Know, Chuckle.
A breed apart from ordinary humans, and responsible for much of their culture. Some would call them the salvation of humanity; others wouldn’t call them a cab.
– Definition: adj. 1. Lacking craft or deceit; guileless; naive. 2. Natural; simple
– Used in a sentence: Her whole manner, from clothes to attitude, was perfectly artless.
– Why: A useful antidote to the snarky, cynical-chic times in which we live; the world might well be a happier place for its actualization.
– Definition: v.i. To feel joyful; be glad.
– Used in a sentence: Richard rejoiced when the Red Sox won the World Series.
– Why: It’s little used outside translations of the Bible, but addresses a HUGE part of life that we often take for granted. And the more we use it, the more it applies (one rejoicing leads to another).
– Definition: n one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession
– Used in a sentence: “He is a true amateur of cooking.”
– Why: What I would like to bring back is the usage “an amateur of _________,” which makes the word synonymous with “lover.” What I would like to get rid of is the connotation of “amateur” as “slipshod; half-baked; amateurish.” Continue reading “Words to Bring Back: “Amateur””
IT’S THE SCARINESS OF THE blank screen. It’s the focused attention. It’s the mental sensation of assembling Tinker-Toy pieces into a coherent structure. It’s the way the hours fly by. It’s the nothing-else-like-it buzz (thank you, Stephen King). It’s the feel and click of the keys beneath my tapping fingers. It’s the occasional brain-wracking pause. (It’s also the occasional chortle.) Continue reading “Why I Love: Writing”
– Definition: n. An auctioneer’s shill
– Used in a sentence: “Some of these political rallies seem to reek of illicitators.”
– Why: It’s obscure, yes, but how many illicitators have YOU spotted recently?
– Definition: n. pl. (construed as sing.) The division of political science dealing with citizenship and civic affairs.
– Used in a sentence: “My old high school stopped teaching civics years ago.”
– Why: It’s needed. Boy, is it needed.
From Josee Wolff, The Torah: A Women’s Commentary:
“…The pessimist observes a situation, generalizes about the bad aspects, and interprets them as a permanent and constant feature. In contrast, the optimist observes the same situation and sees the bad aspects, but particularizes them and interprets them as a temporary obstacle that can be overcome.”
“FOR GOD’S SAKE LET US sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.”
— Wm. Shakspere, Richard II
“Are you a dream, Merlin?”
“A dream, to some. A NIGHTMARE TO OTHERS.”
— Excalibur
“Well, it’s easy if you know all the notes!”
— Moosie Weinberger, a”h, on playing the piano with her nose
“Never give up. Never surrender.”
— Cmdr. Peter Quincy Taggart
“Are we having fun, yet?”
— Zippy the Pinhead
“Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh! hard times come again no more.”
— Folk song
“In former dreams he had seen quaint lumbering buopoths come shyly out of that wood to drink, but now he could not glimpse any.”
— H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
“We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.”
— Wm. Shakespear, King Henry IV pt. II
LET’S MAKE THIS AN EXPLORATION of the landscapes of creativity — how does the creative experience feel to you?
Mentally, I’m all about visualization: perhaps it’s synesthesia, but even smells and sounds have a visual component for me. So I’ve always seen “the creative process” as starting with a curtain across half the universe. Every now and then, the curtain parts just enough to reveal an Idea.
It could be a series of images, even images of words. Now and then it’s a sound. But even the most abstract Idea carries a visual impression of girders and joists, ropes and scrim. Sometimes an Idea will be revealed a piece at a time, with a whole clicking into place almost audibly and palpably. If it’s long, like a story, it feels like a rope uncoiling from the other side of the curtain — a line which must not be allowed to grow slack.
Sometimes an Idea links up with something inside the rest of the universe. Other times it just sits there, gleaming, faintly pulsing, daring me to capture it in words on a screen or a sketch in a notebook. (If I don’t, it can fade within minutes.)
So let’s make this an exploration of the sense-scapes of creativity. How does the creative experience feel to you?
EVIDENTLY, SHE WROTE A POEM in 1928 called “Dirge With Music.” I have not yet read any of her other works, but I hope they’re like this one. The last stanza says it all:
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
(Thanks to Rabbi David Wolpe for the quotation.)
UNLESS IT CONTAINS A CRITICISM of what the writer didn’t say, no letters-and-opinion section is complete.
THE FIRST TIME I DISCOVERED that my words had an effect on other people was when something I wrote made other people cry.
The people were my fellow high-school English students, and the topic was a personal essay we’d been assigned. My take on it was to write about loneliness, and I wish I still had the essay because I can’t even remotely reconstruct it after 31 years and thousands of more words down the line. Continue reading “Touching With Words”
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