Life in the fast lane--where's the on ramp?

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Sunday, June 11, 2017

A LINK TO THE BBC

“Can writing about pain and secret feelings really help boost your body’s immune system? BBC Future investigates.” http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170601 One of the writers in the Write Your Own Story group at the Main Street Center posted this BBC link on Facebook. It seems the kind of... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Trust ‘em at Your Peril

There’d been no secrets inside the walls of our little house, Mama told us how bad it was: no money, no help, no one we could trust or count on. Sometimes the truth came out when we asked for something: to join the scouts, a bicycle, music lessons. Mother could lash out under stress, she was a... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Main Street Center Writers

Thursday was the day Big Media looked forward to the way kids look forward to Christmas. The stockings would be stuffed with testimony of former FBI Director James Comey. Some of us were tempted to skip the writing session and watch it. It was up to me to come up with topics so interesting that... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, June 5, 2017

Return to “Disco Ball”

Someone in the writing at The Center group asked me last Thursday if “Bloody Helll….” was the only novel I’d written, and of course I said no. I gave a quick recap of “Waltzing With Zombies,” which has nothing to do with waltzing or zombies, “Women’s Work,” about an 1890’s bank robber/schoolmarm and... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Nunya

A long time ago, when my little girl was a student at Logan college in Carbondale, she worked in the office with a cute little guy named Darrin. They’d become fast friends – she’d taken him under her wing as a brother from another mother. She had sent me a coming out letter a year or so earlier;... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, June 3, 2017

COVFEVE

There was a song my mama sang sometimes when her mind had wandered off to someplace long ago and far away. She may have been assembling a meatloaf or chopping veggies for the salad, standing in our kitchen, but her eyes would gaze off into the distance. Mama’s song, which I’m thinking now was... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, June 2, 2017

On Realizing You’re Lucky

We’ve all had tough days “sunny days that I thought would never end,” to quote James Taylor. Hard times, obstacles to overcome, sh*t that hit the fan. We’ve asked “Why me?” and spent hours wallowing about the misfortunes and trauma that wash over and knock us on our butts. I remember a day at... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Just a little P.S. about today's writing group.

It worked like a charm... The guy in the room wrote about being in the World Financial Center - across Wall Street from the twin towers - when the planes hit, about having to evacuate the building and get a car-pool ride home to Hoboken because all the trains and subways were closed down. Ibbie... Sign in to see full entry.

From the unconscious mind

Sometimes people forget to put themselves in the other guy’s place when they respond to a question or give directions about how to get somewhere. When I worked at the university – which was built on the rural site of a former horse ranch – I started out telling people about the turn-offs closest to... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Kerfuffle

It’s a word that sounds like a mashup of curfew and ruffle, but has nothing much to do with either. Curfew in my personal dictionary meant when the street lights come on it’s time for kids to come in the house. Funny the way it worked. On those summer evenings of hide-and-seek or kick the can, we... Sign in to see full entry.

About this Blog

Sometimes you have to write it down in order to learn what you really think about life, what it means, how to do what's best. Sometimes you need feedback from someone else to put things in perspective.

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