Write On Wednesday: A Penny for Your Thoughts

Last night was a porch sitting kind of night. It was just cool enough to be comfortable on my west-facing back porch, so I could sit and let the sun wash over me on its way to bed. I spent about 20 minutes there, with one of my dogs shade-bathing in the cool green grass underneath my feet. He and I were both content to “set a spell,” which is unusual because we are the restless ones in the family. I wasn’t reading or writing or talking on the phone.

I wasn’t Facebooking or Tweeting.

More importantly, I wasn’t contemplating doing any of those things.

While I rarely allow myself the luxury of letting my mind wander, it’s even more rare that I sit and focus my attention on one thing - a writing idea, or a plan of action for my life, or even the menu for next week’s meals.

Recently, I’ve come to the realization that my writing - in fact, much of my life - suffers from my inability or unwillingness to think.

I’m talking about the kind of deep thoughtfulness when you focus your intellectual energy on one topic and one topic only, whether it’s the points you want to convey in an essay, the type of life you want to live when you retire, or whether to buy kitchen spice racks for the counter or wall spice racks or even whether to buy a spice rack at all.

Just as my body flits from one activity to the next, so do my thoughts, never seeming able to stay still but whizzing across the landscape of my mind like wispy cirrus clouds on a summer afternoon. I want to slow them down, fluff them up with content until they lie heavy and firm on my brain.

How do I make that happen?

This summer, I’m going to commit to more thoughtful porch sitting time. Undoubtedly some of it will be like last night, simply letting my thoughts run idly through my head.

But I’m intentionally planning some time for pure thinking - setting my mind on a topic and keeping it there for more than 30 seconds at a time.  And even if I don’t come up with anything that’s worth more than a penny, I still think it will be time well spent.

Check out today’s Write On Wednesday post, and add your two cents worth...

Weekending

It’s a long, lazy one this time ‘round. Summer shade sitting, cold drink sipping, beach book reading. Dirt digging and plant potting. Barbecue grilling and potato salad stirring. Memorializing those who’ve left us, who served the family with love, devotion, and hard work. Who served the nation with bravery.

Weekending in summer. Long may it wave.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend.

Happy Summer.

weekending with Amanda

The Write Stuff

The comedian George Carlin had an old routine that always cracked me up. It was about “stuff” and how we all had too much “stuff” and everywhere we went our “stuff” followed us around. By the time he started talking about the portable containers someone invented so we could take our “stuff” with us on vacation, I was rolling on the floor.

I’ve been dealing with a lot of “stuff” lately - the tangible sort that comes with cleaning out houses and moving from one place to the next.

But also the sort that collects in the corners of your life, the white elephants of living we try to ignore in hopes that they’ll disappear.

When I’m bombarded with “stuff,” my creative side suffers. That has definitely been the case this past month or two. Both of my parents are ill, I sold a home that I loved - sad stuff, really - and so I’ve not been writing very much. I stopped doing morning pages too, because it was too hard to write anything about the stuff that was bothering me.

Intellectually, I know that writing can help people work their way through difficult times. But sometimes it can be beneficial to retreat from the things you do most often and just be quiet for a while, take some figurative deep breaths and regroup.

That’s where I am right now, working my way back to the words, putting all the stuff back in it’s proper place as I go.

And whatever stuff you’re dealing with today, a good laugh always helps.  Here’s George Carlin to give you one.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac]

Small World

Although I’m not a medical professional, working as support staff to a group of nurse case managers offers some valuable knowledge and connections for everyday life. I’ve learned so much about accessibility options for people with all sorts of physical challenges. There is a whole world of items I’d never heard of before - grab bars and reachers and ramps and handicap accessible vans and shower benches and lift chairs and orthotic shoes. The list goes on and on.

Ten years ago when I started this job, I didn’t realize how important this knowledge could be to me personally. But with aging parents (and neighbors and relatives) it has become evident that I may have to use this information in a very practical way.

We’ve been looking at some ways to modify my mother’s house to make it safer and easier for her to maintain her independence with activities of daily living (see how easy that medical jargon creeps into my writing?) And although my husband chuckled when I asked him to check out a company called Mr. Grab Bar, he was soon engrossed in perusing a vast array of support bars and handles that could be attached to walls in every room of the house.

There are also several construction companies in our area who specialize in home modifications - everything from simple ramp installations to entirely refiguring kitchens and bathrooms with lower cabinets and roll under sinks for wheelchair users. Thanks to the experiences of several of our clients at work, I know which ones to contact and which ones to avoid!

The wide world intersects with our smaller world in so many different ways.

It’s always nice when it works to your advantage.

American Idolatry

We came late to the American Idol party, starting to watch the show in it’s fifth season, the one that crowned Taylor Hicks (Soul Patrol) as the year’s Idol. We got hooked pretty quickly - I’m a sucker for the whole rags to riches thing that Idol does so well, taking these kids from nowheresville and helping them fulfill their musical dreams. My husband, singer extraordinaire that he is, likes to study and critique the performances. He is definitely more merciful than Simon Cowell ever was, but only just. Speaking of Simon, I was thrilled when he left the show. His particular brand of snarky negativity does nothing for me, and the lackluster talent that “won” the show during most of his time there seems to indicate that it isn’t all that conducive to choosing or cultivating good performers either.  I wasn’t altogether sure about Steven Tyler of Jennifer Lopez in the beginning, but I have been impressed by their musical judgment and even more so by their heartfelt support of each contestant. Lopez, in particular, has shown a side of herself I never dreamed existed, a  maternal attitude coupled with some rather astute advice. In fact, in another life, she would have made a pretty decent high school music teacher (and I bet she would have had more boys in her choir than any teacher in history!)  Although this year’s judging has sometimes been a bit too heavy on the adulation and too light on the education, the presence of straight talking record producer/mentor Jimmy Iovine levels everything out quite nicely.

In the early years of my viewing history, I’d sometimes got completely incensed with the voting decisions that sent home great performers like Katherine McPhee, Jennifer Hudson, Chris Daughtry, or Adam Lambert. But I’ve since learned that being crowned the winner is no guarantee of success and that real talent usually wins out in the end, as the success of those “losers” listed above proves so well.

So I’m much more sanguine about the whole process.

Which brings us to last night’s episode.

This year’s group has been exceptionally talented, and the remaining three contestants could each qualify for the title. I had my projected winners for the finale show  - Joshua Ledet and Phillip Phillips - simply because it seemed their fan base was the largest (as evidenced by the hometown hero celebrations that were aired during the performance show on Wednesday). And I projected Joshua to win the whole thing, but narrowly, because Georgia native Phillip has such a humongous number of young girl groupies who hold speed dial voting parties all over the south.

But I was knocked off my pins last night when it turns out Joshua was sent home, leaving 16 year old Jessica Sanchez to battle it out with Phillip in next week’s finale.

“Well that just sucks,” my husband grumbled, more nonplussed by the outcome than I was. (Remember, I’m sanguine about it now.) “I just don’t get this show sometimes,” he continued. "Why do they let it all depend on people voting? Why don’t the judges have some say in the final outcome? That would seem more fair to me."

“Would it really?” I asked, tongue in cheek. “What’s the title of the show after all - it’s American Idol, and here in America we believe in the power of the people to decide."

“Well, we all know where that gets us in politics too,” he said.

It’s true - sometimes “the people” don’t make the best decisions. We vote with our hearts and not our heads. After all, the millions of young girls who vote repeatedly for Phillip Phillips probably aren’t thinking as much about his vocal ability and how it will stand the test of time as they are about his laid back southern style and shaggy sex appeal.

But after all, isn’t that a big part of the American experience too? That ordinary people like Phil and Joshua and Jessica can suddenly achieve their most outrageous dream and become huge stars literally overnight.

Where else but in America would you expect that to happen?

Power to the people indeed.