1730 by Jeff Hess
From 1730 today until 1830 tomorrow, I will be off-line. There will be no new posts during this time, nor will I be checking email. Go for a walk. Have coffee with a friend. Read a book.. Appreciate all that is your family.
Posted in Going Up From Egypt, Zen | No Comments »
0820 by Jeff Hess
I read a motivational poster yesterday that admonished: “Just because a task is difficult does not mean you should not try, it just means you should try harder.” Yoda and I have a problem with that. To paraphrase: “There is no try, there is only do badly and do well.”
I play the piano badly. I read music and I recall discovering chords while sitting at my grandmother’s blonde upright, but my repertoire consists of “Heart and Soul,” one-handed. Once, I allowed my badness to hoover all the joy from personal discovery; I let learning suck. Since, I’ve found that I accept doing badly because I know that if I keep sucking long enough, I stop sucking. I still can’t play the piano, not for lack of talent, but because I haven’t played the piano badly long enough. That is the message that ought to be on the poster.
An early pencil sketch by Vincent Van Gogh inspired me. He sucked. Badly. Yet, what artist does not desire to achieve Vincent’s mastery? He grew from that childish sketch to “Thatched Cottage in Cordeville” by creating stacks of bad sketches and bad paintings, permitted by the realization that it was OK, just then, to suck. A life time may be needed to become an overnight success; we once called it “paying your dues.”
We live in a culture where failure is “not an option,” we expect instant success. We aren’t paid to fail, we’re paid to succeed, to be productive from go. Innumerable great works remain unrealized because we don’t allow each other to suck. That sucks.
What should you be sucking at?
Posted in 272 Project, Art, Journalism, Writing | 4 Comments »
1823 by Jeff Hess
A productivity blogger suggested that restricting his posts to less than 400 words improved both his writing and his efficiency. I pondered his arbitrary standard. Poets revel in such restrictions, wrestling with the beats and lines of their chosen form, but prose writers are seldom so precisely restrained. We ramble and relegate the demanding task of surplus reduction to our editor. I searched perennial instances of the short form and recalled myriad assertions, soliloquies, epitaphs and behests – “Venni Vetti Vicci,” “To be or not to be…,” “I regret that I have but one life to give…,” and “Ask not what your country…” – but no archetype of prose brevity presented itself until I read again President Abraham Lincoln’s 272-word Gettysburg Address. Only period scholars recall the hours-long main event of that day but every schoolchild recognizes “Four score and seven years ago…” To emulate Lincoln’s mastery seems a worthy goal for any writer and I have set for myself that objective: to crystallize my thoughts, as best I can, in exactly 272 words.
Writing so acutely is exhilarating, gratifying and racking. I am a fast writer. As a meatball journalist on hourly deadlines, I hammered out pages nearly as fast as I could type; 1,000 words an hour seemed reasonable, ripping off 300 words an invigorating sprint. Satisfying my golden Gettysburg standard, however, demands that I invest four to six hours of intense concentration – creeping along at a middling 45 words per hour, a word-and-third a minute – in each composition. Aesop’s tortoise zipped in comparison.
Am I a better writer for my efforts or just another hack with a gimmick? Let me know.
Posted in 272 Project, Journalism, Writing | 2 Comments »
0818 by Jeff Hess
Back on the 4th of March I Went Thinking, a personal retreat I periodically engage in to get away from the Internet and all distractions electronic, to enter myself and ponder. I did so because the demands of making a living suddenly became intense and I had no energy for either Have Coffee Will Write or The Writing on the Wal. I discovered, however, that in daily observing these twin devotions – engaging in the process of reading and thinking about an Internet-centered World and then composing some commentary about what I had read and thought about to share in my dinnertime conversation – I had closeted myself as effectively as any addict and left my dear Kaliope bound and gagged in the next room.
In my Thinking I freed her, but damn, is she pissed. I have tortuous predawn hours before me, but I am making amends. While her still voice remains in that next room, I anticipate her cautious approach, her return to just behind my left ear where she whispers frustrating words and creates flickers of realization. I need her.
What then of my blogs? With a single exception, no reader missed me enough to comment. Could the message be any clearer? I will continue in my housekeeping tasks for TWOTW and to post brief essays in what I think of as my 272 project (of which this is one example) on HCWW.
I struggle with my commitment phobia. I have allowed the mind killer, the little-death to keep me from my precious muse. No more. Kaliope is once again first in my life. I have serious sparking to attend to.
Posted in 272 Project, Blogging, Journalism, Writing | 8 Comments »
1730 by Jeff Hess
From 1730 today until 1830 on Sunday, 10 April, I will be off-line. Real life is making other demands.
There will be no new posts during this time, nor will I be checking Facebook. Go for a walk. Have coffee with a friend. Read a book.. Appreciate all that is your family.
Posted in Going Up From Egypt, Zen | No Comments »
