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GROWN UP, BABY
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
We wouldn’t dream of hushing an infant expressing their need to eat, or sleep, get warm, or fart – we acknowledge those needs, and we joyfully meet them.
But babies grow up.
Some are crybabies.
Some are full of poop.
Some, submerge beneath their pain, and it’s not just gas.
Covering our tracks, camouflaging feelings, we smile when we aren’t happy, we say thank you when we aren’t grateful – we say gracious words when we would much rather fire verbal bullets …
Bumping into people, colliding with life – whether that’s clashing ideas over virtual Zoomy-conference tables or real ones, the leakage continues. I don’t duct tape my mouth or strap my typing hands to chair arms either. What needs to get out, needs to get out. Writers are not dissimilar from non-writers. Take away their note pads and backpacks, remove their wiry glasses and hunches shoulders – as likely to bump your cart in a store or give you their finger in traffic.
Sure, we may look different, but after you attend a few writers’ conferences, you realize quickly there is little different from any other scruffy group in casual clothes and dodgy hairstyles …
I can’t write about pain when I feel good. I can’t smooth away or dismiss anguish except when I’m feeling that way. I can’t write about a pity party unless I’m having one. Conversely, I can’t write about difficulty when euphoric over something that went well or over a happy surprise.
Not limited to physical or emotional manifestations of pain or pleasure, my emotions leak out on purpose, on a page whether I try to stifle them or not.
Reader feedback:
Hi Mark, You ‘hit the nail on the head’ with today’s musings...our generation has not known global...political, financial, restrictive hardship till now...I find it challenging, personally, but even more painful when seeing the devastation in third world populations. Do you think the uprise in mass shootings in the USA is influenced by the pandemic and repercussions?, SF, Lethbridge, AB
I clicked the link and found your 115 year old doppelgänger, RH, Calgary, AB
Thanks again Mark. The simplicity of “Just Do It “. A lot like YODA who famously taught the value of DO OR DO NOT - there is no TRY. Action reigns supreme, JR, Calgary, AB
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