The Power to Act

Archive for March, 2011

I grew up believing that artistic creations came fully formed. Like Benjamin Button, born an old man who lived his life backwards, they arrived intact, finished, and perfect. I have no idea of the genesis of that belief, but looking back, I can see the wreckage that it brought in its wake. When it came to writing, I felt inadequate — others had the magic key and I didn’t. Furthermore, that prose flowed from the spigot of their genius; while I stumbled blindly without confidence or direction through a dangerous mine field. I don’t have a moment’s memory of ever thinking that I could write, never mind be any type of artist. The creative process itself looked like an obscure tribal language at its best, or at its worst, a forced march to the top of Mt. McKinley weighted down by a heavy knapsack amidst cold sleet and rain. Insurmountable.

How could I write, if as a child I couldn’t spell and struggled to conjugating verbs or diagram a sentence?  Even worse, I didn’t have anything to say; I had no voice. When asked what I wanted, my natural response was to defer, saying, “Oh, it doesn’t matter to me; whatever you want.” And when I was compelled in grammar school to write, I felt it was an insidious trap set to catch dangling participles or incomplete thoughts or sentence fragments.  In fact, I don’t recall ever hearing a comment about any of the thoughts I endeavored to express in my writing. I would hold my breath whenever a paper was returned, and Read the rest of this entry »

Last Saturday morning, I ate a light breakfast, dressed in my Gee and happily headed out the door to my Tae Kwon Do class. With plenty of time to spare, I turned the key of my car’s ignition only to hear silence. My car would not start. My priorities clear, I called a friend who saved the morning by picking me up on her way to the class. Two hours later, the class completed, a quick call, and my friendly AAA repair truck driver was at my home before I was. He ran three tests and presented me with a long electronic printout of his findings: the alternator was fine, the starter, fine, but the battery was operating at 15% capacity—for all functional purposes, it was dead.

With a new battery installed, I headed out again to meet another friend. When I returned home, try as I might, the garage door opener would not open the overhead door. Yes, you guessed it; my garage door opener had given up the ghost. With another new battery installed and a reset of the door opener itself, I was up and on the way again, but with the morning’s events marching out in front of me demanding my attention.

I may not be the brightest bulb in the pack, but there was plenty of light for illumination in the grouping of these events. And when things happen in multiples, I pay attention.  I don’t believe in the randomness of life but rather in the Read the rest of this entry »