It's morning in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. A beautiful, bright sunny day. We will visit dad in the rehab unit after breakfast.
Meanwhile, I have four freelance writing jobs to do for a magazine. One of the great things about writing is you can do it anywhere and as long as you have a phone and an Internet connection, interviews and communication go on like business as usual.
I'm doing a little research online this morning before the day kicks into gear and have scheduled a phone interview with the first client in the afternoon. I can write the article in the evening. The same schedule for Sunday. Morning research followed by an interview and writing session. Deadlines on Monday before noon. Then two more stories due on Wednesday.
For me, the best way to work on assigned material is to just dive in. They are usually not subjects I would choose on my own. Yesterday morning, before getting on the airplane I got up early and wrote a story for the newspaper. It was difficult in the sense that the material was dry and detailed. News stories are often like that. The challenge is to jump in and start writing.
Once I'm over the inertia (and sometimes resistance to the material itself) the writing process takes over and it's about finding ways to make the story interesting. That's why, and you may be wondering, I keep writing on the blog even though things have tended to be on a personal plane. It's all about becoming a great storyteller - no matter what story is being told.
Many great writers have simply said, the best way to learn to write is to write. Write, write, write.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Tennessee Tale
I flew in to Nashville this evening to visit my father, who is gravely ill. The weather is much more temperate here than in the Austin area. They have had a lot of rain recently and they have the Smoky Mountains. The last time I was here I was 19 and came to sing on an album with singer/songwriter Billy Calary. There was a Bosendorfer grand in the recording studio. It was the most gorgeous sounding piano I have ever heard.
That was a very long time ago. I've only been here a couple hours - still somewhat dazed by the wonder of flight. My youngest brother and I talked and laughed throughout the flight. Is that inappropriate or is there a heady effervescence about life in the face of death? I could not bring myself to be somber. When I am alone, some part wants to weep and another part won't let go.
My mother's death was a wrenching thing that took place slowly over many years but we had time to come to terms with it, to say what needed to be said and when she passed it was peaceful, like a long exhale. Now I see her at home in an earthy paradise with green meadows, bright lavender flowers and a deep blue sky. The sun is shining there and her body is young again.
The loss of my father is different - it's like God is suddenly falling from out of the sky - a thing that should not be. And yet he must fall from that high, remote place and at last become human. It is the way of all gods. In that sense there is joy in the fall.
Now I am swimming in deep water, way out beyond the shore. Past the place where there are footholds. If he falls, will he linger here on earth for a while, for years even, before relinquishing his hold on life and returning again to the sky?
That was a very long time ago. I've only been here a couple hours - still somewhat dazed by the wonder of flight. My youngest brother and I talked and laughed throughout the flight. Is that inappropriate or is there a heady effervescence about life in the face of death? I could not bring myself to be somber. When I am alone, some part wants to weep and another part won't let go.
My mother's death was a wrenching thing that took place slowly over many years but we had time to come to terms with it, to say what needed to be said and when she passed it was peaceful, like a long exhale. Now I see her at home in an earthy paradise with green meadows, bright lavender flowers and a deep blue sky. The sun is shining there and her body is young again.
The loss of my father is different - it's like God is suddenly falling from out of the sky - a thing that should not be. And yet he must fall from that high, remote place and at last become human. It is the way of all gods. In that sense there is joy in the fall.
Now I am swimming in deep water, way out beyond the shore. Past the place where there are footholds. If he falls, will he linger here on earth for a while, for years even, before relinquishing his hold on life and returning again to the sky?
Monday, September 5, 2011
The Clairvoyant Journalist
Okay, now that I have your attention, I want to tell you a somewhat bizarre story about how I "saw" someone tampering with wires under the hood of my car and how that led me to solve my first real life mystery. Shades of the TV series, MEDIUM. Only it was real and it happens to me all the time.
This morning I got up in the wee hours to write a magazine piece (my working habits are inexplicably odd these days) and after about 8 hours at the computer, decided to go to the paper. But when I got out to the car, it was dead. Well, not dead. There was plenty of juice in the battery. It was as though something had been disconnected. Like a wire had been cut.
It was micro-seconds before my brain connected back to a recent "vision" of someone tinkering with wires under the hood on the driver's side of my car. When I had this "impression" it was in the middle of the night and my gut reaction was fear. I am out in the boonies, after all, and as safe as it seems who knows what kind of creatures are stalking around out there, right?
My platonic male roommates are seldom home either so sometimes it takes nerves of steel when things go bump in the night.
My left-brain kicked in fairly fast, I adjusted my attitude with an inner "nonsense" comment to myself and put it down to a warning to be sure and lock up my vehicle. Now here I was, with a car that seemed to have had the wires snipped or pulled or otherwise disconnected.
A neighbor offered to give me a jump and, sure enough, it wasn't the battery. He said he thought it was probably the ignition.
After he left, I walked back through the "vision" to find the exact place where the trouble had started. I was sure of the area under the hood where the deed had been done and so that's where I focused my search.
In a matter of minutes I discovered two things: a wire cutter had been left under the hood in the little space under the windshield wiper on the driver's side and by following the wires issuing from what appeared to be the ignition switch, I found that the wires had indeed been snipped and were now jury rigged to the fuse box.
Now I'm no mechanic, but it makes no sense to me that the ignition would be wired to the fuse box. I checked with a couple of male friends (they always seem to know these things the same way women know how to bake) and both of them confirmed that wiring something like an ignition to the fuse box is a "band aid" fix for a bigger problem, which was no longer working.
So now I understood that what I had "seen" had most likely happened sometime before I bought the car - more than a month ago. Weird. I'm telling you, this second sight stuff is tricky. Time is all twisted and the message can be scary. Anyway, I began to get excited because I also had the sense I could fix the silly thing. It took me a few minutes to re-cut the wires and make a new connection but after I did, the car started and I am now at work, flexing my biceps with great glee and satisfaction.
If I could only predict the future with more accuracy! One can only hope the car will start again for a day or three so I can get it to a mechanic and get whatever is really going on with it properly repaired.
This morning I got up in the wee hours to write a magazine piece (my working habits are inexplicably odd these days) and after about 8 hours at the computer, decided to go to the paper. But when I got out to the car, it was dead. Well, not dead. There was plenty of juice in the battery. It was as though something had been disconnected. Like a wire had been cut.
It was micro-seconds before my brain connected back to a recent "vision" of someone tinkering with wires under the hood on the driver's side of my car. When I had this "impression" it was in the middle of the night and my gut reaction was fear. I am out in the boonies, after all, and as safe as it seems who knows what kind of creatures are stalking around out there, right?
My platonic male roommates are seldom home either so sometimes it takes nerves of steel when things go bump in the night.
My left-brain kicked in fairly fast, I adjusted my attitude with an inner "nonsense" comment to myself and put it down to a warning to be sure and lock up my vehicle. Now here I was, with a car that seemed to have had the wires snipped or pulled or otherwise disconnected.
A neighbor offered to give me a jump and, sure enough, it wasn't the battery. He said he thought it was probably the ignition.
After he left, I walked back through the "vision" to find the exact place where the trouble had started. I was sure of the area under the hood where the deed had been done and so that's where I focused my search.
In a matter of minutes I discovered two things: a wire cutter had been left under the hood in the little space under the windshield wiper on the driver's side and by following the wires issuing from what appeared to be the ignition switch, I found that the wires had indeed been snipped and were now jury rigged to the fuse box.
Now I'm no mechanic, but it makes no sense to me that the ignition would be wired to the fuse box. I checked with a couple of male friends (they always seem to know these things the same way women know how to bake) and both of them confirmed that wiring something like an ignition to the fuse box is a "band aid" fix for a bigger problem, which was no longer working.
So now I understood that what I had "seen" had most likely happened sometime before I bought the car - more than a month ago. Weird. I'm telling you, this second sight stuff is tricky. Time is all twisted and the message can be scary. Anyway, I began to get excited because I also had the sense I could fix the silly thing. It took me a few minutes to re-cut the wires and make a new connection but after I did, the car started and I am now at work, flexing my biceps with great glee and satisfaction.
If I could only predict the future with more accuracy! One can only hope the car will start again for a day or three so I can get it to a mechanic and get whatever is really going on with it properly repaired.
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