Tag: writing

Writer’s Quote Wednesday – James Earl Jones

Welcome back everyone to another Writer’s Quote Wednesday post on The PBS Blog as Hosted by Colleen of Silver Threading. As the thunder rolls and the rain floats from the sky your weekly cup of inspiration today comes from James Earl Jones:

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So of course I snagged this one from Google, but what a great quote. If not for the genius of creative written expression, there is so much of our history we would not have with us. Where would we be without books? Or the people who felt obligated enough to record their lives on paper or to think up new worlds? As a fellow book worm I don’t even wanna think about it!

About The Author:

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You don’t need an about section, of course you know James! (Right??)

 

Wikipedia:

 
James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor who in a career of more than 60 years has become known as “one of America’s most distinguished and versatile” actors and “one of the greatest actors in American history.” Since his Broadway debut in 1957, Jones has won many awards, including a Tony Award and Golden Globe Award for his role in The Great White Hope. Jones has won three Emmy Awards, including two in the same year in 1991, and he also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in the film version of The Great White Hope. He is also known for his voice acting, most notably as Darth Vader in the Star Wars film series and Mufasa in Disney’s The Lion King, as well as many other film, stage, and television roles.

 
As a child Jones had a stutter. In his episode of Biography, he said he overcame the affliction through poetry, public speaking, and acting, although it lasted for several years. A pre-med major in college, he went on to serve in the United States Army during the Korean War, before pursuing a career in acting.

 
On November 12, 2011, he received an Honorary Academy Award.

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That’s it for this week’s episode of Writer’s Quote Wednesday and as always, don’t forget to visit the links or click on the pic to see how your blog can join the fun.

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Encoded

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Certain memories won’t let you forget
they rush before the forefront of your mind
like messages that escaped the past
only to cement themselves inside you
climb their way through blood vessels
encoded experiences written in our DNA
for thoughts do not disappear
do not evaporate from the mind
only to fall short in the abyss of nothingness
they’re instead a strand of silent data
entwined within the past and the present that is you
and sometimes, the future too
encoded memories
they erupt old wounds like falling planes
in smoke filled clouds
a twin tower sacrifice for your humility
a taste of truth for our memories
a thorn in the side
encoded data
so we never forget what falling feels like.

Nostalgia

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I didn’t always drink coffee, but the first cup was so delicious, made with the expertise of a veteran coffee drinker some years back, that I incorporated caffeine into my daily schedule and like a feign sought to mimic it’s deliciousness. But this morning, as I poured the warm goodness and integrated it with Carmel Vanilla Cream, something unexpected happened. Ok so yes I was thinking about Blogging but not that. I was, however, brought back to those early days. Suddenly, I tasted of the past and images hurried to my thoughts like a wave of epiphany. With each sip it is as if I tasted of conversation and laughed at jokes once long faded away in memory. It reminded me of an article I read last week about scientist finally admitting that memory is stored in the DNA, and I do believe it’s true. Even if we cannot remember a moment, I believe we still live it in some way. Maybe we mimic the actions of what we can neither speak nor recall. Maybe something makes us laugh and we cannot explain why. Or perhaps there was an experience so traumatic that it disintegrated into our very skin, but is no longer accessible through the mind. Why is it that when we recall the past we include ourselves even if we had not lived it? “We were slaves” I say of my history, though I have never been anyone’s property and neither have I picked of anyone’s cotton. Could it be that this experience was genetically passed on to me? Indeed, I believe so. For who am I to be so arrogant as to believe I inherited my mother’s nose and not my ancestors ways? Their thoughts? Their promises?

Memory, like water it is an interesting thing. A substance that we use daily, that we cannot live without, and that we have even named and yet, we know nothing about it. For what is H2O really? I laugh at the boldness of man to think he has all the answers, and yet the things we use on a daily basis is still foreign to us. So, Nostalgia, the bringing forth of memory we either despise or long to experience again, perhaps it is much deeper than we think, and yet closer too.

#Ronovan Writes Weekly #BeWoW Prompt- Get It Together

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No, that’s not Ron’s suggested prompt but it was inspired by it. Ronovan’s prompt is “Are You Ok?”

It’s an interesting thing how a week can comprise a singular theme. Sometimes there are lessons we have to learn and messages silently embedded into our day to day that we do no always see. The central theme of my week for instance had to do with not letting things burden me.  So when I saw Ron’s prompt: “Are You OK?” it was on accord with my thoughts already. So my dose of positivity for today is Ron’s idea with a mixture of something I tell myself often, more so this week, and that is: “Get It Together!”

For those of you who know me by now, you know that I believe strongly in the power of choice and how our choices impact our lives. I counsel sisters from time to time and I noticed there’s a lot of depression taking place. I even found such depression to try and overtake me but I had to stop and ask myself a serious question: “Do you want to feel this way right now? Of all the things that need to be done and that are being done, really EC? Now?” From there I made the conscious decision to be OK with leaving things undone that attempt to rob me of the peace I so need in this moment. This was important to me because I knew that I will not otherwise accomplish the things I needed to. I saw this feeling then as a stumbling block to my daily priorities. Sometimes the problem is that we often try to go back and see how we can redo things that we really need to let go completely. We all have our moments (I know I do), but when our emotions get tangled sometimes we do not need to dwell on why, we just need to “Get it together” because the choice is yours no matter what it is. If you want to, you can shake the baggage and fly or you can give it permission to wear you down.

For the most part the advice to those who suffer from depression or any other negative spirit is “trying to figure out what’s wrong”, but not today. Today my message is the opposite, just drop it and get yourself together. Easier said than done I know, but it’s not impossible to do. Sometimes it’s not about thinking things through, it’s about letting them go completely and being OK with moving on.

Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Ralph Ellison

For today’s episode of Silver Threading’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday my pick is from another one of my favorite authors, Ralph Ellison:

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Woa, that picture came out wayy too big, but I digress 🙂

“By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is, after all, a form of communication.”

– Ralph Ellison

So I love this quote, such wonderful advice about the importance of a writing identity as it is seen through the eyes of others. While you may know this within yourself (and I hope that you do) I think it’s also important to understand, as a writer, that it’s not just about you. The readers and even critics of your work play an important part in the molding and shaping of it as well. When someone who is not closely knit to you, not just a family friend or relative but a devoted reader, when he or she affirms who you are as a writer it isn’t to say you are dependent on that affirmation, it means you have properly communicated your message over to the reader. In a way it reminds me of Blog Awards. One of the most positive things about them, especially when different people nominate you for the same award, is that they prove that you have succeeded in communicating your blogging identity over to your readers. If your purpose was to create a creative blog for instance and you received a Creative Blog Award, it means you were successful in conveying that over to your readers, even if it’s just one person who gets it.

About The Author:

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Ralph Ellison was born on March 1, 1914 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and studied music before moving to New York City and working as a writer. In his book of essays Shadow and Act, Ellison described himself and several of his friends growing up as “young Renaissance Men, people who looked to culture and intellectualism as a source of identity”. Ellison took up the cornet at the age of 8 and years later, as a trumpeter, attended Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he studied music with his eye on becoming a symphony composer. I was first introduced to Ellison’s work while attending Chicago State University and reading his bestselling novel Invisible Man for one of my English classes, which he published in 1952, and was hooked ever since. Ellison’s unfinished novel Juneteenth was published posthumously in 1999.

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And that’s it for Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Be sure to click the picture (or the links) to find out how you can join the fun. 🙂

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