Unfinished essays are scattered across my desk. Others are still percolating in my brain—half-formed and waiting. And some essays are hidden inside me—ones I know I will never write. Some days, everything feels too big—emotions, life, situations, every single thing. How can words express the expansiveness of what it is to be alive?
Reading is a challenge for me. I like the idea of reading and enjoy it when I actually do read. However, I have trouble making time and settling down long enough to read. While watching a YouTube video about writing, I came across a reading program by Ray Bradbury: read one poem, one short story, and one essay every night. It sounded easy enough—I could just read short examples of these. I did not realize when I started that Bradbury said to do it for 1,000 days!
Have you ever been mesmerized by someone telling a story? I used to work at WUAL, an NPR station in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. For one of our segments, our producer would record Kathryn Tucker Windham telling stories. I loved hearing about her childhood in Thomasville, Alabama. I had read her book, “13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey,” but these stories she told Sam were different—simple stories about her life growing up. Of course, she told them wonderfully, with her Southern drawl and heavily inflected voice.
I have written a hundred essays for my blog since December 2020. These essays include thoughts about creativity, inspiration, music, songwriting, life, nature, genealogy, language, architecture, and social commentary. They represent a part of my creativity. Expressing ideas through whatever means I have available is important to me. Being creative keeps me sane.
In November 2022, I wrote a blog, “Too Many Books?” The essay ponders the question of whether or not one can own too many books.
I enjoy writing. I do not have a novel in me or even a short story. I consider myself more suited to writing essays or personal stories. I was inspired by reading Joyce Maynard’s articles in her syndicated news column, “Domestic Affairs.” It ran in my local newspaper from 1984 to 1990. Joyce wrote about her life in a simple honest manner and it felt as if she was sitting in the same room talking to me.
Writers love language and words—especially amusing, witty, or unusual expressions. I can remember being in elementary school and learning new words. It was an aural and intellectual feast—which became a delightful, seductive pleasure. Put simply, word-lovers delight in words! There is even a name for a person who loves words—logophile, lexiphile, or lexophile. One who is obsessed with words is a logomaniac.
The other day on a local news program, I heard the newscaster say in a report that a certain school principal was an “escape goat.” This brought many fanciful images to my mind. Was the principal a literal goat? If...
I am fascinated with words. Words can inspire, encourage, entertain, inform, heal, or hurt. Perhaps it is the idealist in me that believes words can change the world. Sadly, sometimes words are used to mislead—witness the use of words in political rhetoric. One faction may use words to paint another group as “other” through name-calling and divisive, inflammatory rhetoric. Never mind that the words are untrue—by being spoken or written, someone will believe them. That is the power of words.
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