Tragedy and Comedy

Life can be so funny you want to cry, and so tragic that all you can do is laugh.

I often find myself wondering about the hidden forces at work behind the circumstances of our lives, and wishing I could understand so much more.

I find a kind of exhilaration in pathos. It's embarrassing, but true. Similarly in great joy, there is often a fragility, a feeling of false happiness.

And so it is, that we find ourselves fascinated by the ups and downs of imaginary as well as real people. So much so that we go to the movies, read tabloids, and watch with interest the goings on of the neighbors. Sometimes life is so deep, we reduce it to a performance, and ourselves the audience rather than the participants. While reviewing Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest for the class I am teaching, I am delightfully entertained.

The detachment this produces is an insulator for extreme emotion, which we often feel ill-equipped to receive.

Stranger still, most of us will pay hard-earned money to ride a roller coaster when life offers us ups and downs that would rival anything Hollywood could muster.

Roominating Out Loud

I've been holding back a little on the blogs I've been posting, afraid that someone might actually read them that I don't want to.

I didn't realize this until my daughter and I had a conversation about this very thing. After all, writers are very afraid that people will actually read what they've written, especially if it's honest. A really good choir director once told me that when we sing, we should sing out, even if we make mistakes, because then they could be heard and corrected. I find this excellent advice for many tasks, writing included.

Now, I believe a bit of restraint is a good thing, and I'm not about to start vomiting my ugly thoughts all over y'all.

But I was encouraged to blog my little heart out, just a little more, so if you are a reader that's queasy, then, well, by all means, be queasy.

Let me start by saying that I've been hearing a censor in my head who is perhaps, my mother, my children, that guy I went to school with, or forbidding thought, a publisher, *gasp*, and so I'm going cautiously into this new room. If you want to come here with me, I'm humbled. If not, I'm humbled still more.

God is in here, listening. He will lovingly filter my thoughts and words. I have asked Him to.

PS. The censor has already told me I've said too much, way too much. Can you hear her?

Arthur: a biased review

How could a guy get away with doing all the wrong things, being absolutely the  wrong person, and still get my vote for one of the best movies of the year?
Well, you'll have to watch it for yourself.
Everyone's had an Arthur in their lives at least once, and if you have, you know exactly why I love this movie.
Check it out for yourself at a redbox near you!

Blinking Cursor

The cursor is blinking at me as I sit, in somewhat of a stupor, after doing almost nothing yesterday.

Some Labor Day.

I'll join you back here when some semblance of wit returns.

Happy REAL beginning of school!