Warren Bluhm's Blog, page 26

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“I quit,” someone said,
and maybe it was me.

But
a few minutes later
someone went back to work
and produced something
Fine.

The quitting had
cleared the air
and made way
for trying fresh.

“I quit” is not quitting;
it’s pressing “reboot.”

Getting ’er done

So you want to accomplish something, but you don’t have time? Of course you have.

You’re awake 16 hours a day; surely you have a few minutes to spend on That Thing You Want To Do.

Even one little task is more than nothing: Put one thing on eBay. Look up how to start a business. Write 100 words of your novel. Send out one resume.

If you do that every day, you’ll at minimum have put 365 things up for sale, written 36,500 words, applied for 365 jobs, by the end of the first year.

Pu...

5 images, 5 senses

It was there. He could tell. As quiet as it was, a presence waited nearby.

o o o

A peanut buttery aroma wafted through the room as he unscrewed the cap and took a deep breath.

o o o

Fumbling in the dark, he felt a sudden slimy ooze that didn’t belong. Had he left the grape jelly out, or was this something more sinister?

o o o

The wine sloshed in his mouth so sweet and bitter simultaneously that he didn’t want to swallow right away, but when he did, it warmed his body as it cour...

The 1948 nickel

There it was, a little piece of evidence, proof that life existed before he was born. Then he realized he was surrounded by such evidence — the 1941 Philco radio, the fragile newspaper dated 1915, the Will Rogers biography from 1935 that spoke of his recent death.

What was it about the 1948 nickel that astonished him, all of a sudden? Was it the knowledge that mints minted coins years before he had a hint of what a mint was? Was it the premonition that after he was gone, the universe woul...

For Emily, whenever I may find her

I picked up my old college edition of selected Emily Dickinson poems on an impulse and opened at random — I read 97, 99, 98, 103, 100, 102, 101, and said, “No more! My brain’s exploded, this is so much in so few words —”

It was another example of the power of the book shelf — what fireworks await the brave soul who dares pull one down and peek inside — the passion and the mind that crafted the words together — almost too much to comprehend, and yet comprehension was what she sought.

Th...

A musically disjointed Saturday morning riff

“Let’s see what the night can do (I wanna get lost)” — “Drive,” Jason Mraz

“Here’s to the infinite possible ways to love you” — “Have It All,” Jason Mraz

Maybe when it’s writing time, I shouldn’t put words and music on the turntable …

I do think Jason Mraz fills a niche that once had folks like John Sebastian in it. Mraz is like a modern Lovin’ Spoonful — catchy pop with an edge.

“I think we could be bigger than cheese and macaroni …”

“Better With You” — also really good.

“...

The fantasy that we are monsters

French River area of Prince Edward Island © Chiyacat | Dreamstime.com

I’m back on Prince Edward Island in my reading, reliving The Great War with Lucy Maud Montgomery and Rilla of Ingleside, her fifth book featuring Anne Shirley Cuthbert Blythe of Green Gables, published in 1921. Montgomery wrote two more, prequel tales, but years later, so this will conclude her first 7-8 year burst of creativity and provide the last word chronologically on Anne and her family. Given what I’ve heard of the a...

Random scribbling before dawn, Part III

Why do I love Godzilla? And specifically, why is the first Godzilla movie (both Gojira, the magnificent Japanese cut, and Godzilla King of the Monsters, the American re-edit with Raymond Burr) one of my favorite films of all?

I suppose it has something to do with fire and explosions and all those things that kids like — I did first encounter the movie before I was 10 — but I always liked the small stories underneath the big one, featuring the characters of Emiko and Professor Tamani and t...

Random scribbling before dawn, Part II

Ten minutes. That’s all it took — a short burst of effort, a little bit of time — to write the blog post I put up Wednesday. That’s how 272-day writing streaks happen.

“Can you meet this goal for this moment in time?”

“Sure, I guess I can.”

“Good. How about now? Can you do it for now?”

“Well, the pen is moving across the page, isn’t it?”

“How about for this moment?”

“Yes! And now you’re getting annoying.”

That’s an old anecdote and not original with me, and your eyes mig...

Random scribbling before dawn, Part I

I have nothing this morning, except a streak of 271 days, a habit that has become an expectation, and even if I am the only one in the world who expects it (notice I avoided the word “obligation”), it has become important, and that is progress.

All of my life I have worked to meet other people’s deadlines and neglected the ones I set for myself. “I’m going to finish this book by June 11” or “I’m going to meet this financial goal by my birthday in 2019” or “I’m going to lose this weight by...