The unanswerable question...

...is "Why?"

Why does life come in spurts of insanity interspersed with momentary calms?
Why does my daughter alway seem to get sick with some contagious something the week of her birthday?
Why can't funerals be at more convenient times?
Why do I think scheduling home renovation projects in advance will somehow mean I'll have more control over the timing and process? (re: contagion, birthday, funeral)

Why do I not feel more freaked out over this?

Perhaps I am learning that there is no control in life. It's more like surfing....
calm seas for a time, then the waves come, and sometimes you ride them, and sometimes you wipeout.



I guess I've learned how to surf through life. It's a good thing.

Writer's write

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. ~Toni Morrison

Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

When we see a natural style we are quite amazed and delighted, because we expected to see an author and find a man. ~Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670

Every writer I know has trouble writing. ~Joseph Heller

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke. ~Arthur Polotnik


Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. ~Colette, Casual Chance, 1964

Philosophical

I've been spending a lot of time walking lately - http://the3day.org/goto/minnfinn - and it gives me a great deal of time to think on my feet.

What do I think about? Everything. What I need from the grocery store. How to pay off all of my credit card debt. If it's better to get a bicycle or an American Girl doll for my daughter's birthday. If it's better to do your best or be bested. What causes attraction. Why the passing of time has relative speed. Why the current crop of Republican Presidential hopefuls need to do *something* different. Why can't we get rid of a two-party political system. Why are people hungry when other people are throwing food away. How long will it be before I can add a third bedroom to my house.

I haven't yet solved the world's problems while I walk. But I appreciate having the time to have thoughts again.

The Kitchen Sink

You know that saying "brought everything except the kitchen sink"?

There's a reason that's ironic. It's because the kitchen sink is a pain in the ass to move. I speak from personal experience in this. My charmingly adorable old house has a less than charming and adorable kitchen sink. It's old. It's pitted. It's got serious calcium deposits. It's leaking, and I need to replace it.

The difficulty..... it's a porcelain over cast-iron behemoth of a sink. It's been living there happily for 75 years... you try telling a 75 year old they need to move. And then try lifting cast iron.

As we say in Minnesota - this particular home repair is going to be 'interesting.'

I'll keep you posted.