Lost

A message pops up on my computer telling me that Cranky Old Man has had a couple of new views. Surprising to me since the Old Man has been off doing other things.

This brings to mind the somewhat circular thought, "Not all who wander are lost."

This is part of a longer quote by J.R.R. Tolkien from The Lord of the Rings that goes: “All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."

One can take issue with this, one can take issue with anything, one often does when one is a Cranky Old Man. Thus, even gold may glitter and yet be bitter, some if not most are lost, the old eventually do wither, and deep roots are furthest away from the water.

J.R.R. Tolkien did get a lot right. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cranky cousin the older Bilbo Baggins and undertakes the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom.

One is left to wonder where Frodo goes at the end of his wanderings. In the book, he remains in Middle-Earth with his grandsons Elladan and Elrohir before departing some time in the Fourth Age. The shire is restored and it is the time of the ascent of man.

How is that working for us?

Writer's Block

Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, "Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know."

Sphenopalatine Ganglioneuralgia, could have been the title of this short article, but then only a food scientist would understand.

Sphenopalatine Ganglioneuralgia is a brain freeze, the pain you feel when one takes a big gulp of one's favorite frozen concoction on a summer's day or one chomps down on a Popsicle fresh from the freezer. Boom - there is a massive pain in your forehead. Blood vessels dilate as you hold the icy cold in your mouth, pain receptors release prostaglandins, increasing sensitivity to further pain, and the trigeminal nerve signals the brain to the problem. Stop what you are doing, but you don't.

A brain freeze is not unlike what happens to writers when they can't think of what to say. And the harder you try to think, the worse the block gets. Boom - one gets a headache just thinking about thinking about something to write. Writers call it writer's block.

Hemingway had some good advice on writer's block. Stop what you are doing, relax and let the mind take over. And, this is important, write what is true.

Life is a Gift

Life is a gift, enjoy each day

Life is a Gift

Life is a gift enjoy each day,
Find something nice to say;
Find someone troubled by sorrow,
Lighten a burden, brighten tomorrow.

Remember those who have less
Try to be generous and do your best;
Do a kindness now and then
And joy will fill your heart again.

On Writing

Ezra Pound by Henri Cartier-Bresson

The Old Man gets criticized for his writing. It is too long, too complicated, too this and too that. But then, the Old Man knows that critics are just failed writers.

But then again, so are most writers.