Category: Uncategorized

Out in the Open

I’m sitting with a friend at an outdoor event and this guy comes over, butts in to our conversation.

We don’t know him, but he starts telling us his life story. Like how he was retired and got bored. Got himself a job delivering Chinese food. Sometimes an eight-hour shift, sometimes a four-hour shift. Says the four-hour supper shifts are the worst. Says after four hours of Chinese food deliveries all he wants to do is go home and relax.

You know I had to ask.

“When you get home after that four-hour shift delivering Chinese, do you ever, like an hour later, ever want to go for a ride in your car?”

He says, “Nah. I’m good.”

Yesterday I was cruising the parking lot at a retail outlet looking for a spot to (obviously) park. I passed a car in the handicap section a couple of times and I noticed that the driver was sitting in it.

Never mind that, if you are going to sit outside the store you don’t need to take up a spot, you can park elsewhere leaving that dedicated space for someone who really needs it, but that could just be me.

Actually, this person had put their seat back a smidgen and was fast asleep. At least, for the first two passed I assumed asleep. On the third pass I began to worry. The number of times I’d seen this person, it was with a mouth wide open and zero movement on their part. I was considering my 911 option when I lucked out. A car pulled into the space in front and to the right of the open mouthed recliner.

He moved! So, not dead.

In my opinion, you should think twice before grabbing your forty winks in the handicapped parking section and here’s why. People (that would be me) will at some point think you are dead. That’s some scary stuff. I think you should do your napping at home.

I just spent an hour in the kitchen buffing the tarnish off the silver tea set. We bought it (with the best of intentions and love) for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law on their 25th wedding anniversary. If I’d known it was going to be returned to us after their deaths, I might have gone for the china set instead.

Similarly, writing. I might have decided on another path if I’d known what a lot of work and metal angst writing was going to give me. I have come to terms with the rejection, you have to have a tough skin in this business. I’ve also conquered my demons when it comes to confidence. I know how much I like my writing, but there’s a whole other world of people out there who may have a different opinion on every single word I write. I’m okay with that too. After all, mostly I write to entertain myself, why not? When I pull off a short fiction or a poem that works, I feel great. That’s why I write. Word inspired dopamine. If you write, it’s highly likely you know what I mean. There are just those times when things are clicking along and you know you’ve hit the right tone.

I’d like to say that I’m inspired by the arrival of Spring, but I can be inspired any old day of the year. I hope it’s the same for others.

Happy writing.