WRITING REWARDS YOU MISS IF YOU DON’T WRITE

Writing rewards come in flavors other than green.

JD Salinger said the act of writing is reward enough.

That from a guy who locked himself up for his reward.

But he didn’t throw away the key.

I learned more than I needed to know about the guy from the documentary.

I saw it eleven years after it was made, but who’s counting.

Did I need to know more? Nope, but I like seeing writers outside of their work.

How do they navigate the world beyond their desk?

One writer shares his life on twitter, and does it with joy, my kind of joy.

 

Hemingway is remembered for saying “write about what hurts the most.”

Along with, “Writing is easy, just open a vein.”

Is that a writer you want to read?

Click this for the Barnes and Noble national bestseller lists.

I imagine it hurts to open a vein; it hurts just thinking about it.

 

What Makes A Mess?

I’ll tell you what makes a mess, blood makes a mess.

The other night I broke a bottle in the kitchen and swept it all up. Almost all.

The next morning I felt a small stone pressed into my calloused heel and brushed it off with the top of my other foot.

Except it wasn’t a stone, it was a shard of glass, and brushing it off cut the top of my other foot, which the dog took an interest in.

Messy, so let’s call blood a metaphor: (a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.)

 

My blog, boomerpdx, is my blood, my time, my fun, my hurt, my life as it is, which is a result of my education, relations, and ambition.

I also refuse to let a lifetime of learning go to waste.

As a blogger I’m giving Facebook and twitter a break because I’d be posting there more than what’s considered ‘normal.’

So I do it here instead and work to include shared truths and values in every post.

My views online are the same views offline, and not everyone agrees with me. Those are my writing rewards.

But I’m the one doing something.

I believe there are millennials spinning their wheels and hoping someone else casts enough votes to avoid some kind of shit-hole outcome in the coming election.

If you’re reading this, boys and girls, thank you, and just fucking vote would you?

Vote like those student loans didn’t cement your head where your brain used to be; vote like you’re tired of old jackasses taking up space in your already shortened attention spans; vote as if you give a shit about women’s healthcare, about your sister, your mother, your wife, your daughter.

You feel me, bro?

If you’re tired of hearing the same crackpot story told by new fuck-sticks, vote.

 

My First Vote

Nixon won his second term in 1972 against George McGovern.

Some call it a landslide, a referendum, an ass-kicking.

It’s all that.

I turned eighteen in 1973.

A year later I had freshman year of college under my belt, the Watergate Scandal threw a different light on the huge victory in 1972, and I joined the Army under Nixon’s vice prescient after he resigned, Gerald Ford, instead of sophomore year like everyone else.

Yep, I was a Ford man in uniform for his two years in office; then I got out, went back to college, and voted for Jimmy Carter. Twice.

Through his four years we got to know his brother Billie, Mom, and his wife along their daughter.

Their other kids were older and out of the picture as I remember.

They had their own lives away from the spotlight.

 

It’s been written that Carter’s was a failed presidency, that he didn’t have the push he needed to get his policies passed into law.

He went home in 1980.

After Nixon screwed up I figured on a long wait for another republican, then here came Reagan.

He was a Hollywood retread, but did have governor experience in California, along with George Shultz.

What is it about Hollywood retreads and presidential politics and industrial leaders?

Baby Boomers have had a voice for a long time, they were the ‘Hell No I Won’t Go,’ generation.

Who feels like looking at and listening to the sycophants who line up to kiss one Baby Boomer candidate’s ring?

These guys lined up once. 

Not this time. What do they know that we don’t?

This Boomer says, “Evaluate with precision, then make your decision.”

Vote, then call it ‘Doing Something.’

I call it writing rewards.