Tag: blogging

For the LOVE of Writing

I’m aware that not everyone who blogs writes. It sounds kind of contradictory since you’re obviously writing, but people have many different reasons for blogging so that’s probably none of my business.

When I browse the pages of various blogs,  I sometimes see many writers complaining about writing. In many ways I am quite confused about this, but maybe that’s just because I’m in love with writing, and that’s what I would like to offer you. While Blogging is a topic in and of itself (as some of you are probably still trying to balance writing by way of the blogging medium), writing is the gift you would obviously like to offer to those in which you are blogging for so that’s what we’re going to talk about. That, if you could learn to fall in love with writing, it wouldn’t be a tedious process. OK, perhaps I’m being a bit selfish; it may not be that easy for you. After all, I am in love with writing.

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What does it mean to be in love with writing? First of all, like I said, get the idea of blogging out of your head, we’re not talking about that right now. Being in love with writing doesn’t have much to do with how frequent or less frequent you blog. However, if you do love to write, it can help you to blog. I just wrote a post on “The Brilliantly Untalented”, in which we discussed how sometimes the most introverted “untalented” people (from the POV of self); make for the best artists especially as it relates to writing. These people are not so overwhelmed with fear that they cannot write, it’s just that these people love to write. They wake up writing, they go to bed writing, and all they can think about is writing and the message they want to put out into the world. Will the world want to hear it? Who cares! The point is that when you love something (or someone), you don’t have to make yourself be a part of it. So stop it! Blog Writers, stop trying to make yourself write and just write. Let it be as smooth as brushing your teeth in the morning; let it embrace your thoughts, and in the words of Mark Strand let your words bathe in the blank wake of your passion, and be kissed by white paper. I don’t have to force myself to lay next to my husband because I love him. You don’t have to remind yourself to make the children breakfast because you love them, it is instinctive. The same is actually true for writing. There are mistakes that are made in the process of course, but when you love to do something, whether you get paid or not, it is not a long drawn out and daunting process. The key is that you want to do it. You shouldn’t have to make yourself write. It’s not a punishment; it’s just what you do. In the end, after falling in complete love with what you do, the process will be deliciously enticing. You will find yourself looking for any excuse there is possible just to write. And as with any gift that you exercise and use on a regular basis, you’ll notice that you’ve become quite good at it too, after all, there is someone out there just dying to read your content. Yes, YOURS. You untalented ball of clogged up words, there’s even a reader out there for you.

The Brilliantly Untalented

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 I’ve had this book for awhile;  loaned to me by another  sister. I never completely finished reading it, and as I scrolled my library for a neat snack, it wasn’t too high on my priority list. But as I now found myself flipping through pages, Chapter 10 caught my attention:

 

“Writer’s are people who tolerate a high level of anxiety. We have a talent for holding up well under tension. Anyone can start writing. To keep on creating and to grow as a writer you also believe you suck. You question everything you write. I know writing students who really do seem to believe they are great, they love writing, they write a lot, they seem blandly cheerful….they spew out words. They have no doubt, they reveal no anxiety. I think that is great. But my students who are doing really fine work, really committing themselves to writing honestly, deeply, and truly—-they have anxiety. They doubt themselves all the time. Writing stuff that is going to affect other people intensely is walking a fine line between anxiety and pleasure—-its a vibe you ride.”

I actually love this advice. I find it present not just in writing but other forms of art as well. Some of the most nervous, most introverted people are the most talented: the “Brilliantly Untalented” and Undiscovered Geniuses. This is not to say you party goers out there should worry. Nor is this to say the introverted are overcome with intense fear, for fear and faith cannot coexist (one will rule out the other). But they have a kind of humility that seems to balance out the negative components of anxiety. They know that there is talent present, but they also believe that they suck. Is it contradictory? It may be, but yet this contradiction keeps them writing and keeps you reading. Every time I’m on stage to recite a poem my stomach turns into butterflies and it feels like everybody in the world is depending on me to deliver them from a crisis. It is a feeling of great pressure. Its an understanding that though I’ve been given a gift to bestow upon my audience, I am simultaneously aware that this gift is not mine; that it belongs to one greater than myself. Then I notice, that in such anxiety, I’ve tapped into a kind of depth people could really feel. I did not have to think too hard about it. Did not think so grand of myself that I would begin editing my soul I just spoke, hoping the butterflies won’t make it so far up my throat. My belief that I am nothing, that I suck, and that I am Brilliantly Untalented, has in the end seemed to always produce the greatest work.

 

Guest Feature – A Modern Day Slave Plantation by Laura Dimon Part 2

*Note: This article was not written by The PBS Blog, it is featured as part of the continuation of an ongoing series and is written by Laura Dimon. Please view our Guest Feature or Article Section for Part 1*

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In 1972, the prisoners were virtually all black. Merciless guards — all white men, called “freemen” — worked the inmates like slaves. Sugar cane was the main crop, King said. In the documentary film In the Land of the Free, it’s stated that the inmates labored all day every day for a measly $.02 per hour. The abuse didn’t stop there. As NPR reported, “There was a prisoner slave trade and rampant rape; inmates slept with J.C. Penney catalogs tied to their waists for protection.” King was one of three men who formed the famous Angola 3 group, leaders of the Black Panther Party’s Angola chapter. King said they were fighting for equality, but he later realized their efforts had been misaimed: “We were focused on civil rights, but we didn’t have human rights,” he said.

 

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In our most recent conversation, I asked King, “How’s it going?” “It’s … ongoing,” he replied. It’s easy to see why: Little has changed at Angola. It remains a time warp, a living, breathing relic of a shameful past. Of about 6,000 inmates currently in custody, roughly 70% are black and 30% are white. In October 2008, NPR reported, “In the distance on this day, 100 black men toil, bent over in the field, while a single white officer on a horse sits above them, a shotgun in his lap.” The context of this modern day slave plantation is unfortunately appropriate. Nola.com wrote that Louisiana is the world’s “prison capital,” with 1 in 86 residents serving time — nearly double the national average. The racial skew is extreme. One in 14 black men in New Orleans is behind bars; 1 in 7 is either in prison, on parole or on probation. Louisiana is “notorious for racial disparities in its justice systems,” Andrew Cohen wrote in the Atlantic.

 

One highly concerning aspect of Louisiana’s judicial scheme is that, unlike in 48 states, a unanimous jury decision is not required — only 10 jurors have to vote to convict someone, even for a life sentence. Oregon is the only other state with this system, but it doesn’t have the same tremendous racial component. Cohen wrote, “Prosecutors can comply with their constitutional obligations to permit blacks and other minority citizens to serve as jurors but then effectively nullify the votes of those jurors should they vote to acquit.” It is one of “the most obvious and destructive flaws in Louisiana’s broken justice system,” he wrote, arguing, plain and simple: “Louisiana is terribly wrong to defend a law that was born of white supremacy.”

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A Duke University study examined more than 700 non-capital felony criminal cases in Florida and found that, in cases with no blacks in the jury pool, blacks were convicted 81% of the time while whites were convicted 66% of the time. The researchers concluded that “the racial composition of the jury pool has a substantial impact on conviction rates” and that “the application of justice is highly uneven.”

 

Image Credits: AP, Peter Puna, Robert King, Google Images

Lustful Commitments

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I don’t think we fully understand lust. We compare it to the sexual desire felt among all of mankind. The desire to become one physically with the man that has aroused these senses. But sexual desire is a natural occurrence shared by all of mankind. Lust in definition then is not sexual desire alone, but it is uncontrollable sexual desire. People who cannot control themselves will only end up in the least desirable situations. In relation to lustful commitments, relationships that are built upon an uncontrollable sexual desire: The physicality of all things can only go so far. In time, pure desire without genuine love will burn out into an unrecognizable flame; it will rust along the outlines of passionate flesh, and it will mock the remainder of your dedication, which is built upon nothing but the chemistry of a kiss. Irritation will then ensue as you come to find that you share nothing in common but the power of sexual desire, the devouring of the others  flesh; the tingling of a single touch. But this euphoric feeling is only temporary, and so this lustful commitment becomes an easy addiction to the release of prolactin, and the climax will be the only thing that you share.

My advice is simple: Make sure that when you marry him,  it’s because you fell in love with his mind. Consider yourself warned.

Thank You

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Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it. – Ralph Marston