So Much To Talk About

American actress, comedian, and game show panelist, Peggy Cass, was born on this day in 1924 (d. 1999)

Mame Dennis: This will calm you down.
Agnes Gooch: Oh, no! Spirits do the most horrible thing to me. I’m not the same person!
Mame Dennis: What’s wrong with that?
Agnes Gooch: Will it mix with Dr. Pepper?
Mame Dennis: He’ll love it! Drink!

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day.
The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

Orson Scott Card

The working title of my “current” novel is “Not Much to Talk About.”

It’s a work in progress, although it’s not progressing as well as I would like. The book is a combination of two Nanowrimo projects (National Novel Writing Month). The draft is done except for about three chapters in the middle and the need to go back and do lot of date checking.

This post is not about that novel.

Some days I don’t blog here because I have little or nothing to say. I want to be one of those writers who can product a daily column that will inspire, amuse, or at least get you to click on the tip jar.

I don’t always get there because, as I said, I don’t know what I should write.

I just know that I should be writing.

Yesterday I talked about spending time with friends and about connecting and reconnecting relationships that have spanned decades.

I realized in that, and in the time I spent with friends, that I have a lot of stories to tell.

I also have a lot of stories that shouldn’t be told.

Along with a few that I can tell when a few more people pass away.

That points to another novel that I completed during Nanowrimo. It needs some edits, but it tells a fascinating, mostly true, story about someone I worked with in Washington, DC.

Enough of those people have passed on that I think I’ve outlasted the possibility of lawsuits.

Still, I have to be careful. I know what happened to Allison MacKenzie in Peyton Place.

I need to be writing more stories. I’ve allowed myself to put the writing on the back burner while I worked on art, did theater, worked two (at least) jobs, and ignored yard work.

That needs to change. More correctly, I need to make time in the midst of all of the other distractions to write.

In my heart I know that I’m a writer. I spent some time over the weekend going through some old writing

Available at
The Write Side Shop
(click the pic)

files.

What I realized is that I’ve written some crap. But I’ve also written some cool stories.

I need to share them. And I need to write more.

I keep telling myself that, when I’m retired from the day job…it’s coming, oh yes, it’s coming…I’ll have more time to write.

That’s the plan anyway. But I also want to travel, do more art, do more theater. And if I do all of that, I’ll just have more stories.

I know that the writing experts tell you that real writers don’t talk about needing to write, they just write. But weren’t they talking about writers needing to write when they wrote that?

The think is, I’ll keep talking about the need to write because I’ll always be needing to write. Just maybe I’ll inspire myself to get it done.

I’ve got stories. You’ve got stories.

Write ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.

IN OTHER NEWS

Embarrassed Pope Suddenly Realizes He’s Been Reading The Bible Upside Down This Whole Time
The Babylon Bee
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has been criticized for getting his Catholic theology exactly backward on numerous social issues. But one cardinal noticed that during the Pope’s morning devotionals, he was holding his Bible entirely upside down.

Trump trial: Cohen admits to stealing from the Trump Organization
The Washington Examiner
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s defense attorney grilled Michael Cohen on Monday during the former president’s hush money trial on how Cohen lied about a reimbursement request in 2017 so that the Trump Organization would overpay him by tens of thousands of dollars.

Joe Biden was racist and patronizing in his speech to Morehouse grads
Adam B. Coleman in the New York Post
Joe Biden only showed up at Morehouse and other meetings featuring black people recently because his polling numbers among black Americans are decreasing and he needs us again to stay in power.

BREAKING: Justice Alito Once Cut in Line at the Alexandria, Va., Safeway
National Review
Alexandria, Va. — Scandal-plagued Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito once cut in line at the Alexandria, Va., Safeway, according to witnesses and staff who spoke to the Associated Press.

Available on Amazon.

Recaffeinated Mondays: Connections

“I have been and always shall be your friend.”
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

For all the ills foisted upon us by social media I still love it because it connects me with so many people from so many phases of my life.

Relationships that began decades ago in grade school have been rekindled. New relationships have been formed. I’ve written before about my geeky group of Tolkien friends who formed our own little online fellowship in the early days following 9/11.

At the end of last week, a harmonic convergence brought together a chance to see one of my favorite writers and to hang out with some dear friends from high school. Without the internet, this likely would not have happened.

I have been a follower of Sean Dietrich (Sean of the South) for several years, and have often shared m appreciation for his writing with one of my high school friends. Decades (literally) ago, we were in creative writing class together.

Sean writes from the heart about life, dogs, people, music, and the south. I love his daily columns and have several of his books.

During the horror of the COVID pandemic…and oh boy, that’s a different story and I have a lot to say about that…Sean wrote a column about how children would not be able to sit on Santa’s lap that year. That was true.

But I fired off an email to Sean that said “wait, there’s a group of Santas online that are working diligently to provide virtual Santa visits.” To my surprise, Sean responded, interviewed me vial email and wrote a column entitled Santa in November. That column showed up later in his book, The Absolute Worst Christmas of All Time.

Fast forward to late last year when River Road Church announced that Sean would be coming to Richmond.

I contacted my friend, and another who lives here in Richmond and a plan was hatched.

Fast forward to last Thursday when we met for dinner, and saw Sean in concert. Afterward we stood in line with hundreds of people (literally) while Sean greeted and hugged each and every one of us.

In full writer geek mode with Sean Dietrich.

Friday my Richmond friend and I showed our high school friends a bit of our fair city and some of our amazing history.

Well, what’s left of it…but that’s another different story.

We wrapped up our time with dinner on Friday night where we just had hours of conversation and laughs.

The Write Side Shop

We talked about old friends, and new friends, and the challenges of raising adult children.

I could go on, but suffice it to say it was an incredible couple of days and I’m still feeling the warm fuzzies.

Our time together brought home a point about something I’ve been thinking of and considering for weeks now.

We need to stay connected. We need those relationships.

Over the last few weeks and months I’ve been trying to reach out more. We have the internet, we have our phones. There’s no reason we can’t do more than try to catch up every five to ten years at a class reunion.

The point was brought closer home last week as we discussed friends who have passed in recent weeks and months. In fact our out-of-town friends had just attended the funeral for the spouse of someone we did all twelve years of school with.

Let me take this moment to repeat my mantra: Cancer sux.

The older I get, the more I’m realizing that life, and friendships, and family are our most precious treasures.

I have often written about how I am surrounded with way too much stuff. Also known as crap.

I’ve written about how much I have, or at least think I have, to do.

I don’t want those things to get in the way of keeping in touch with the people I love. I want to make a more concerted effort to keep those relationships warm and active and alive.

I’ve rambled enough. I tried to wrap this post up with a quote about friends being more important than wealth, but I couldn’t find anyone who said exactly what I wanted to say. I guess I’ll have to say it.

I am blessed with material things. I am blessed with many friends.

I know which blessing makes me a wealthy man.

IN OTHER NEWS

On this day in 1940, the first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Never again.

Am Yisrael Chai.

American actress and singer, Constance Towers was born on this day in 1933. In 1977,  I saw Constance Towers co-star in The King and I with Yul Brynner.  True story, I had nosebleed seats, but I only paid $9.

What he really said…

Before I went off and commented or formed an opinion regarding the graduation speech given by Harrison Butker, I thought I’d read what he actually said.  You should to because it’s not what you’re hearing on social media.

Full Text: Harrison Butker of Kansas City Chiefs Graduation Speech
National Catholic Register
The Super Bowl champ and kicker spoke about the dignity of life, masculinity, and the most important role of all: motherhood.

‘Harrison Butker Does Not Reflect Our Values,’ Says League Of Woman Beaters
The Babylon Bee 
NEW YORK, NY — In response to an angry outcry from feminists regarding statements he made in a commencement speech, the NFL issued a statement that Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker does not represent the values of the rest of the league of woman beaters.

Rest In Peace Dabney Coleman

Dabney Coleman, Emmy-winning actor from ‘9 to 5’, ‘Tootsie’, dies at 92
USA TODAY
Dabney Coleman, the Emmy-winning TV and film actor who starred in “9 to 5,” “Tootsie” and “On Golden Pond,” has died. He was 92 years old.

Available on Amazon.