The Writing Walls are Crumbling.

Tags

Biden, bipartisan, debate, discussion, left wing, moving forward, right wing, Trump, walls

I have had a very hard time blogging over the past four years. It wasn’t just Donny and his insane cabal but his many followers. I have unfriended many people during this reign, and I have blocked many of them. And I did try to listen. I tried to understand the divide, not just in America but in Canada and around the world . I have teased and ridiculed not only Donny but these followers. I knew converting the mindless was not possible, but they were never my target. I targeted the middle-of-the road centrists, the non-partisan voters who see truth above party politics. Unfortunately, these people tend to be more laissez-faire and vote less than the indoctrinated [on both sides]. Biden winning the vote feels like a victory but a tainted one. We are not in a good place.

Now that we have a change on the horizon, can I dump the farcical memes and get back to arguing with logic? I hope I can. I hope we all can. I would much rather see far-righters and far-lefties write out what they believe and openly discuss their arguments. I would hope we can all sit down quietly, read others’ stances on issues, and work to some consensus. It is this back and forth playing with ideas that moves us forward. It is how I move my writings forward. I don’t write knock-out stories in one go. It takes many tries of pushing that theme or pushing this character or pushing that conflict. All of my best writing has come from pushing into areas I never ended up in. The same is true, I believe, for moving forward in social and political discourse. Life is story, and those of us who write a lot of story can attest that what we think is best almost always is not.

I could not write much about life these past four years because so many have adopted views of life I do not agree with. And no, it is not just the righties. I am anti-government. When governments in my Canada want to implement new programs, I cringe, because I know my government’s debts will rise with no compensating benefit. Too many pay no service at all to our enormous debts.

What do I want to Write About?

The list is long, and I don’t claim to be qualified to write about much of it. But the following is a quick list.

• Socialism
  • what is it?
  • where should social policies fit in a capitalistic society?
  • what do Liberals really want?
  • what are Conservatives afraid of?
• Competition
  • I am for competition, when it makes sense
  • when does competition not make sense?
  • how do we manage non-competitive units so everyone is happy?
• Executive Accountability
  • this is currently a critical problem in not only America but in Canada and around the world
• Taxation
  • does the low-taxation-of-billionaires model make sense?
  • what is the logical management perspective on achieving good government?
  • of course, taxation of expatriates and management of tax fraud.
• Reading and Writing
  • I work at my writing every day. I have many ideas on making writing more interesting and relevant
  • reading is a forgotten skill. We have millions of experts who do not read anything more than Facebook posts or their favorite news headlines
  • how to correctly punctuate lists 😉
• Racial Injustice
  • unfortunately, the list is endless!
• My many other interests: books, fountain pens, inks, poetry, nutrition, diabetes, and more.

There is so much to write about and such little time to do it. I’ve been sitting on my hands for so long, I don’t really know if I can do this. Is Humpty Trumpty falling off the wall enough to get me back into this? But of course I have to write. The only way we’re going to move forward as a civilization is through discourse and debate. I remember when the Berlin Wall started to come down. It was the day my firstborn entered the world. I was so hopeful. The world really did seem to offer a brighter future. But of course we’ve erected replacement walls, and unfortunately we always will. I think the purpose of my writing and many other blogs has to be the dismantling of walls. These ideological walls need to crumble.

PAD 2014 – End Of Week One – Highlights

Tags

discovery, humanity, night, since

I am not going to post the other eight of the nine poems I have written in this first week of National Poetry Month where I write at least one poem a day at Writer’s Digest Poetry Asides blog. I know I have said this before, but I know very little about poetry; I know very little about writing. The one thing I am sure I know is to trust your Muse. When your Muse speaks to you, you are compelled to drop everything and follow her. Failure to do so is failure as a writer. I run a weekly prompt writing group and it is all about chasing our muses. Everybody who shows up writes something that sparkles in the darkness. That is all I am attempting to do this month and whenever I write poetry: find some hidden truth and shine a light on it.

Day 4 exposed some anger in me, and honestly, I am not sure where it comes from. Extreme Republicans are suspects; though Canadian socialists (NDP) rub me the wrong way too. Or perhaps it is a certain case of academic dishonesty that rankles me. It is definitely not about my wife. I don’t know; it just wrote itself on the page:

Day 4 Prompt: Since ___?___

Irreconcilable Differences

Since when does it matter what I think?
You always do it your way.
Since when does it matter if the boat sinks?
You will ride your omnipotent wave.

Since when do you value another?
You live your life as you please.
Since when have you tried to get closer?
You’re nothing but a big tease.

Since when have you noticed me glisten?
You think you are so cool.
Since when have you stopped to listen?
I am nobody’ fool.

Day five was a weird one. I barely remember writing it, so I cannot begin to tell you what my muse said to me. I found myself writing these words. The bookstore bits somehow seems to cling to a vision of “You’ve Got Mail” with Tom Hanks in what’s her name’s bookstore. Was he even in there? Was there sexual tension? My muse thought so:

Day 5 Prompt: Discovery

Serendipity

Life’s little mysteries happen by mistake.
An extra scoop of beans.
Oh, I guess I do like strong coffee,
I posted in my tweet.

I got in a wrong lane yesterday
Did you know there is a cool used book store hiding on that street?
I touched you on the back with my shoulder
And you shivered in the heat.

I feel rather excited about my Day 6 poem. I am not going to pretend it is good, but it feels good to me. Every line makes me think about my life and who I am, what I believe in, what I want. I am even considering somehow using it as a personal mantra. The thing is, the rhyming pattern AAAAAAAAAAAAA is such a poem is difficult to write. I won’t lie; I wrote this in under five minutes. I would have finished faster, but I needed to go to rhymezone.com and harvest a few more words rhyming with the prompt: night.

Day 6 prompt: Night

When people can stay out of a fight
but not run away in fright
When we can make love in the light
and not be afraid of the night
When I am wrong and you are right
and we do not get upset at a sight
When we all know we are bright
and nobody is trite
When we all take a bite
of humanity’s plight
When we trade in our might
for the desire to write
Then everything will be alright.

Write On!

A Cookie Virgin No Longer

Tags

baking, cookies, diabetes, paleo

I do not follow directions well.

You’d think I’d be able to, afterall, I am a professional accountant, computer programmer, and I write novels — I’ve written two, published none. I can take care of loose ends. I can track down the stubbornest code bug, reconcile the nastiest bank account, and I can see the forrest for the trees. But I can’t do the little things like follow directions.

I think it’s because my mind wanders. It likes to go places and do things while my body is busy doing something else. They call it daydreaming, and they consider it bad. But you know, I’ve solved some of my biggest problems in the shower.

Tonight I should be following directions, but I’m not. I’m baking cookies, and I’ve never done this before. It’s my first time. By the end of writing this blog, I will no longer be a cookie making virgin.

I’ve baked two cakes in my life, back-to-back chocolate cakes. I did them right after each other, not because the first turned out so well, but because side by side with a chunk of pavement, the first was indiscernable. I’d made a giant hockey puck. Looking back over the directions I discovered I’d mis-read the amount of flour I should have put in. For some reason I put in four cups instead of one, or something like that.

Right now my Paleo chocolate chip cookies are baking, but I didn’t follow the recipe exactly.

Uh oh, the wife just drove in. Now I have a witness! But they smell awesome with five minutes left.

First, we had no chocolate chips, so I looked around and found some raisins and pecans. I weighed the options and used a half cup of raisins and a quarter cup of pecans, picked apart first. Approximately. I think things taste better when they are added with approximation. I like to think my intuition is tuned to cooking.

Next I don’t use sugar, so I replaced the half a cup with a bunch of drops of stevia, a sweet herb that isn’t approved by the FDA because there’s nothing they can find wrong with it. More studies are needed.

The recipe called for a cup of coconut flour; which I used, but I didn’t want flaky cookies. My experience with the stuff hasn’t been good. I wanted a little chewiness, so I added a quarter cup of almond flour, or so. And since I added more powder, I needed more liquid, so I added a fifth egg. It also emptied the carton.

Finally the recipe called … done! brb … They called for coconut milk and coconut oil. My experience with other coconut flour baking is that butter offsets the coconut flavor, so I used mostly butter but added some coconut oil. I probably used too much. And I used whipping cream instead of coconut milk.

I guess my recipe is nothing like the one I started with.

Well they smell good and look good. Taste is rather subjective.

They are a LITTLE dry. Coconut flour does that, and they could use more sweetener, much more.

But they are … edible.

Thank God I still have hot coffee in my pot!