Brain Exercises

     I’m not much on physical exercise. I’ve watched a lot of it over the years –so you’d think I’d be rail thin. Oh, it doesn’t work that way does it? There are many things that I wish I could redeem for points toward physical fitness that I have remained steadfast to in my life.

     As I sat out on my small patio this morning drinking coffee and enjoying the unusual Ohio morning’s cool breeze, I closed my eyes and went places, did things, became different, disappeared, rode wild horses, swam in a secluded lagoon, walked in a market place and bought peaches, and finally stood on a beach somewhere I’d been taken to by the gale winds of a brewing storm that was now whipping the waves into blue meringue. And that was over just one cup of coffee!

     I realized even more this morning how therapeutic writing can be on one hand and how debilitating it can be on another. Writing is a solitary sport. That is unless you write with another person and I’ve been there and done that. For me it didn’t work because I had far too much time to dedicate to the shared project. I wrote twice as much and the other writer was more than happy to let me do it.

     I loved it though. I could hardly wait for the return email to see what they had added. Sometimes it was hardly worth waiting for. Two or three paragraphs came back to my nearly three pages. I finally decided if I was going to pursue a collaborative writing style it had to be a retired, lonely single person, passionate about writing with better grammatical skills than me. However, the world is a treacherous place these days, especially on the internet.

ALERT ! FYI – people are not who they say they are or even worse have different agendas than what you intend.   Shock! I know.

     

   So, I create characters that I can trust. If they show up unscrupulous from the beginning, I’m not shocked. If they are a whinny narcissistic problem-laden crotchety old coot, then I know what to expect.  On any given day, anyone can show up at my imaginary door; there’s no limit to the characters who can parade through my living room.

     Most of mine, however, replicate somewhat dysfunctional/normal people. I try to work into my books everyday events, problems, or emotions common to all of us, and be honest about them. (It saves screaming at the TV a lot of times.)

     People do dumb things. I betcha didn’t know that.  They do. They do, think, act, speak and conduct themselves in ways that makes me sit back and scratch my head in wonder as to how can they do these things?

     I’ll never understand mountain climbers who climb without one single support rope. People who swallow sharp instruments, handle rattlesnakes, or eat god-awful foods that I wouldn’t even think of putting in my mouth! (And trust me; I’ve done my share of eating.) And the latest thing that I won’t do, that there isn’t enough money in the world to tempt me is to live in one of the current war-torn third-world countries as an American. “Are you nuts???” that’s usually what I say to the people on the news at night who get killed, captured or lose everything while fleeing for their lives. 

     My feet will stay right here on good old USA soil. I know what you might be thinking; even this good old USA soil is becoming risky to venture out on. You don’t even have to go out with drive-by shootings, home invasions, and telemarketers preying on old people.

    Well, that was a cheery note. Back to my coffee-visions blown in and out of my mind this morning while my Grand Pup, Tater, sits by sniffing who knows what on the breeze.  I wonder what was going through his mind? I’m sure it was a treat he gets when he successfully…well you know.

     So you see I probably did more exercise before ten o’clock this morning than most people will do all day.

Have a good day!