Roland Yeomans's Blog, page 65

The ZEN of WRITING

A New York Times essay recently stated that modern fiction has lost its faith ...

that Christian belief figures into literary fiction in our place and time as something 

between a dead language and a hangover.

I believe it is worse than that:  

many books seem to have lost touch with the soul, the wonder, and the magic 

without which our prose tales are shallow pursuits of sensory titillation.  


WE HAVE LOST THE MAGIC

There is a land not too far from where you sit right now.

Its velvet grasses miss the press of your feet.
The billowing clouds strain to see your body walk slowly up the rising hill.

The fragrant winds blow through the lonely tree branches, 


whispering your name as they seek some trace of you.

It is where the magic lives.

That realm is lonely, wondering where you have been.

And where have you and I been?

We have been caught up in the drudgery that writing has become. 


Burdened by life's duties and our own doubts,

Battered by the fears of the plague at our doors,

we have lost our way.

We have lost the magic.

Did we lose it straining for that first perfect sentence in our new novel?

Looking at the blank, impatient computer monitor 

did we forget the simple wonder of just writing the first simple sentence that occurred to us?

That creative power which bubbles so tingly at the beginning of our book quiets down after a time. 


The journey becomes slower and slower, the inertia of doubt steadily dragging our steps.

Do we continue doggedly on or do we stop to refresh ourselves?

The answer to that question determines whether we find our way back to the magic or not.

How do we refresh ourselves?

How do we refresh ourselves on a long wilderness walk? We stop by a stream and drink.

Drink of those poets and writers who sparked that love of the written word spoken in the lonely heart of the reader.

As a hiker takes shade under the canopy of a huge oak, 


listen to the music of those artists who stirred you to imagine images that you just had to write and make live in your own way.

Then, you shall write as a child writes ... 

not thinking of a result but thinking in terms of discovery as if you were hiking once again where the magic lives.

It is the Zen of writing: 

the creation takes place between your fingers and the keyboard, 

not before in a thought or afterwards in a recasting.

The magic is there waiting for you. It will come if you but get out of its way and let it in.

A TIME FOR STRAIGHT TALK

  The odds are not with me.  

As a rare blood courier, like with E.M.T.'s Policemen, & Firemen --
I walk through emergency rooms wherethe ill are hacking and sneezing trillionsof germ into the air.
Besides, I am not in a good age bracket.

Government spokesmen have their own agendas and many are ill-informed or out of the loop of current data.


Take the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar,who told host George Stephanopoulos 
that asymptomatic spread is "not the major driver" of the spread of the new coronavirus. 

 But it appears that a Massachusetts coronavirus cluster with at least 82 cases was started by people who were not yet showing symptoms, 
and more than half a dozen studies have shown that people without symptoms are causing substantial amounts of infection. 


 Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. 
said, 
"It's "absolutely clear" that asymptomatic infection surely can fuel a pandemic like this in a way that's going to make it very difficult to control." 
Check this out from this Saturday's New Orleans celebration for St. Patrick's Day
 Bourbon Street crowded amid coronavirus order on big crowds

How many of these partiers were infected and came back to Lake Charles or other Louisiana home towns?
Then, there were crowds at airports yesterday

Bill Gates, yes, that Bill Gates who said despite scoffers that people would one day buy water in plastic bottles, said
"There is also strong evidence that this can be transmitted by people who are just mildly ill or even presymptomatic. 
That means COVID-19 will be much harder to contain than the Middle East respiratory syndrome or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), 
which were spread much less efficiently and only by symptomatic people."

 "Asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic transmission are a major factor in transmission for Covid-19," said Dr. William Schaffner,
 a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and longtime adviser to the CDC. 
"They're going to be the drivers of spread in the community." 

Wear a mask, people.  I know. I know.  
But do you really believe Hospitals and Health Departmentsgo to Home Depot for masks?
They have Direct Access to distributors for that.

Wearing a face mask is certainly not an iron-clad guarantee that you won’t get sick:
Viruses can also transmit through the eyes and tiny viral particles, known as aerosols, can penetrate masks. 
Wear glasses and wash your face along with your hands.
However, masks are effective at capturing droplets, which is a main transmission route of coronavirus, 
and some studies have estimated a roughly five-fold protection versus no barrier alone. 
For a former Outbreak Investigator for the CDC on this facet, 
go to 14:30 and then for further data from a toxicologist on this &
why he wears a mask in public settings, go to 16:19
  Think of it as wearing a seat belt:
You don't expect to get into an accident.You simply are preparing for the consequences in case you get into one.

"You do you" as they say.

When I received my two minors in Microbiologyand Infectious Diseases --
I studied hard to get A's.
Now, I am again studying hard --but this time
to put the odds as much in my favor as I can. 

Do what you think best.
Stay Well, my friends.

Cat, The 3rd White Meat?

Between uninformed complacency and misinformed panic, there is a rational middle ground:

PRUDENT CAUTION
Do you watch Tim Pool on YouTube?
He quoted Liz Specht who used her degreesto use math, not speculation, to make somerevealing comments.
Go to the 1:50 mark

When you go grocery shopping this week,buy a little extra,asking what you might needif you are quarantined.
Midnight has a final word:

HOW TO SURVIVE EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES

How to you spot Emotional Vampires?
Like the cliched fictional vampires, they tend to blend in, all smiles and apparent friendliness.
You spot them as you would a cliched fictional vampire:
1.) THEY ARE UNDEAD
Translation: they are not self-sufficient. They take emotional energy from others, for they do not know how to take emotional care of themselves.
Since they are always running on low in emotional energy, they have none to spare to give others.
2.) COLD TO THE TOUCH
In interpersonal exchanges, they usually are cold and distant though the face smiles.  They are lacking in personal energy and so get defensive if they sense you might ask something of them.3.) USUALLY HIGHLY ATTRACTIVEThey have been able to get by in life without giving because their sexual allure and dominating presence to get what they want by unstated promises of something worthwhile to come.4.)  MANIPULATIVE
They hunger for attention and will get it by forcing their way into the center of focus.  Passive aggressive maneuvers such as emotional blackmail or bullying are their stock in trade.

5.) LIVE IN THE SHADOWS
They will often be the first to rush to someone hurting in need, not to help, but to gain a Renfield to serve them in the future.
6.) HAVE A DARK PRESENCE
Because they are low in emotional energy, they often appear dark, mean, and brooding -- or leave you feeling that way if you have spent too much time with them, leeching you.7.) THEY HAVE NO REFLECTIONThey don't like themselves or who they see in the mirror, so they continually wear a mask to hide themselves from themselves and you.  They cannot handle criticism or authentic affection (without thought of gain) from others.

HOW TO SURVIVE THEM

1) LEAVE THEIR PRESENCE AS SOON AS YOU CAN 
That is often not possible.  Then what?  Only spend a short time with them.  Find ways to limit exposure to them.

2.) TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
Exercise.  Eat right.  Do things that re-charge your emotional batteries. 

3.) TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS
Feel drained whenever they're around?  Guess what?  You have a vampire on your hands.  Value your emotions and yourself.  Take time to reflect how to do the two above approaches to survival.

4.) HAVE THE SELF RESPECT TO SAY "NO"
Set boundaries of acceptable actions and words from them.  Distance yourself from them at least within your thoughts,  They are damaged, not you.

5.) TAKE TIME TO PLAY
It will build inner reserves of emotional strength and inner distance from their attacks.

6.) BE OPEN AND AFFECTIONATE TO POSITIVE PEOPLE
Smile, hug, shake hands with whole people.  Their company will re-new you.

WORDS without MEANING_ IWSG post

Take WE THE PEOPLE

pretty straightforward, right?

Still, politicians, even Founding Fathers, have to placate expediency so ...
Blacks were counted as half a People  
and Native Americans as only 25% a People 

and that was only done to satisfy the bickering states 

for population count was important in determining the number of representatives each state had in the House.


Yet those words and the ones following them are important because of the ideals that lay behind them.



William Shatner let those ideals slip as his ego took control of his performance ...


and we as writers should learn from that.

Our words should not draw attention to us but to our story.  

Our words touch the reader's heart to feel when

we keep from telling them what to feel.

Take the two words above:  

Touch ...Heart
Say I write: 

"It felt so good when she touched me."
It just lays there, right?

 
Now, read Jim Butcher's way of writing it:
“There’s power in the touch of another person’s hand. We acknowledge it in little ways, all the time. 

There’s a reason human beings shake hands, hold hands, slap hands, bump hands. 

It comes from our very earliest memories, 

when we all come into the world blinded by light and color, deafened by riotous sound, 

flailing in a suddenly cavernous space without any way of orienting ourselves, 

shuddering with cold, emptied with hunger, and justifiably frightened and confused. 

And what changes that first horror, that original state of terror? 

The touch of another person’s hands. 
Hands that wrap us in warmth, that hold us close. 

Hands that guide us to shelter, to comfort, to food. 

Hands that hold and touch and reassure us through our very first crisis, 

and guide us into our very first shelter from pain. 

The first thing we ever learn is that the touch of someone else’s hand can ease pain and make things better. 

That’s power. 
That’s power so fundamental that most people never even realize it exists.” 


WORDS HAVE MEANING ONLY  IF WE WORK TO GIVE IT TO THEM.
WRITE WELL.
YOU NEVER KNOW WHO ACHES TO READ WORDS THAT TOUCH THEIR BRUISED HEART. 
Have a great March!

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED

Yesterday, the Surgeon General tweeted:
" Seriously people - 
STOP BUYING MASKS! 
 They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, 

but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk."

 Really?  
Hospitals get their supplies straight from the distributors not Walmart or Home Depot! 

Besides, if masks aren't going to protect normal citizens, what good will they do the healthcare staff?

Surgical masks are worn by the infected to keep their germs to themselves.
  N95 masks protect you from the infected.
 It is a respiratory protective device designed to achieve a very close facial fit and very efficient filtration of airborne particles. 
The 'N95' designation means that when subjected to careful testing, the respirator blocks at least 95 percent of very small (0.3 micron) test particles.

 The ghost of Mark Twainwants me to let you knowthat the coronavirus is .1 micron.

But the coronavirus piggybacks on water dropletsspewed out by sneezes and coughs.
And those water droplets are .3 microns.

So N95 masks provide substantial protection.


Just thought you might like to know.

THE SOCIOPATH BESIDE YOU

"His heart exists inside the dry leaves of a soul." - F. Scott Fitgerald ( of Hemingway)


“I could forgive you even your cruelty if it were not for your calm.” - G. K. Chesterton 

Psychiatrists have believed that 

psychopaths are defined by qualities of callousness, lack of emotion, and coldness.

 They lack empathy, in other words.

 They start out with barely a moral compass, or don't have one at all, 

while sociopaths tend to develop their skewed moral compass throughout childhood and adulthood.


 These predators, both male and female, haunt our everyday lives at work, at home, and in relationships. 

 This is a class of individuals who have been around forever and who are found in every culture, society and walk of life. 

Everybody has met these people, been deceived and manipulated by them, 

and forced to live with or repair the damage they have wrought. 

These often charming—but always deadly—individuals have a clinical name: psychopaths. 

Their hallmark is a stunning lack of conscience; 

their game is self-gratification at the other person's expense. 

Many spend time in prison, but many more do not. 

All take far more than they give.


QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT THOSE AROUND YOU

1. Do you often feel used by the person?

2. Have you often felt that he (or she, because women can be sociopaths too) doesn't care about you?

3. Does he lie and deceive you?

4. Does he tend to make contradictory statements?

5. Does he tend to take from you and not give back much?

6. Does he often appeal to pity? Does he seem to try to make you feel sorry for him?

7. Does he try to make you feel guilty?

8. Do you sometimes feel he is taking advantage of your good nature?

9. Does he seem easily bored and need constant stimulation?

10. Does he use a lot of flattery? Does he interact with you in a way that makes you feel flattered even if he says nothing overtly complimentary?

11. Does he make you feel worried? Does he do it obviously or more cleverly and sneakily?

12. Does he give you the impression you owe him?

13. Does he chronically fail to take responsibility for harming others? Does he blame everyone and everything but himself?

SURVIVAL GUIDE

1.) MIND YOUR MIND

If in describing a new friend to others, you use 

"charming" and "persuasive" and "he/she says the most outrageous things but you just can't get mad at him/her"  --

You have trouble on your hands.  Disengage quickly.


2.) UNDER THE ICING IS ONLY MORE ICING

 It is easy to get get swept up by the winning smile, the captivating body language, and the fast talk of the typical psychopath.

Step back when you feel pulled in too quickly by someone.  

Ask why that stunning person was unattached before you met them.

Perhaps there is a wake of ruined lives behind that person.


3.)  KEEP YOUR GUARD UP IN HIGH RISK SITUATIONS

The summer season is coming with lots of parties, 

meeting new people when your mind is blunted by the relaxed sunshine days on the beach, laughter and alcohol.  

Lions lurk by the water hole for a reason.

Some situations are tailor-made for psychopaths:

 singles bars, ship cruises, foreign airports, etc.

 In each case, the potential victim is lonely, looking for a good time, excitement, or companionship, 

and there will usually be someone willing to oblige, for a terrible future price. 


4.) KNOW THYSELF

  Psychopaths are skilled at detecting and ruthlessly exploiting your weak spots. 

Your best defense is 

to understand what these spots are, and to be extremely wary of anyone who zeroes in on them.


5.) ONLY ONE REMEDY

There's only one solution for dealing with a sociopath: 

Get him or her completely out of your life for good. 


Enjoy your life but mind your surroundings and those around you.
 “Some werewolves are hairy on the inside.”
―Stephen King, Danse Macabre

COVID-19 May Destroy the New Silk Road - Globalism

“Why listen to me?  I can only predict  epidemics and plagues.”
― Larry Kramer

The medieval Silk Road brought a wealth of goods, spices, and new ideas from China and Central Asia to Europe. 
In 1346, the trade also likely carried the deadly bubonic plague 
that killed as many as half of all Europeans within 7 years, in what is known as the Black Death. 

Globalism has been touted as the new Silk Road.  
But a world without borders is also one without barriers to disease pathogens.


China dragged its diplomatic feet in speaking of the severity of Covid-19.

About 5 million people left Wuhan, China, before the lockdown, the city's mayor said.
Some by air to get back to their homes in other countries.
Of course, China has been lying.  But using their figures, of the 25,000 cases that have been resolved ...
10% have died.

China provides the U.S. with 95% of its antibiotics, in fact most of our drug industry depends on China.
Surgical masks, too. 


"Basically we've outsourced our entire industry to China," retired Brig. Gen. John Adams told NBC News.

 "That is a strategic vulnerability."

You think?

 
"If China shuts the door on exports of medicines and their key ingredients and raw material, 
U.S. hospitals and military hospitals and clinics would cease to function within months, if not days,"  said Rosemary Gibson, author of a book on the subject, "China Rx."
"The U.S. faces a shortage of 150 drugs." - Axios

China has locked down more than 140 millions of people, closing hundreds of businesses nation wide.
We will soon learn the folly of American companies outsourcing manufacturing to China 
to have their goods assembled, or completely built overseas, at incredibly low costs.
According to the Daily Mail 8 hours ago:
 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8037835/Coronavirus-rapidly-fitting-Disease-X-category-World-Health-Organization-expert-warns.htmlAfghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq became the latest countries to record cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus Italy confirmed its seventh virus death in Europe's first major outbreak, with 11 towns in lockdown to contain the spread of the infectionSouth Korea now has the largest number of cases outside of mainland China, with 830 patients known to have caught the virusIranian officials denied a cover-up after a lawmaker claimed 50 people have died from the infection in the city of Qom aloneBut the UK's official position for Italy, South Korea or Iran has not changed, with the coronavirus threat to the British public still being 'low'     Why hasn't the WHO rushed to declare Covid-19 a pandemic?  Have you heard of its Private-Public partnerships?

In the beginning, the WHO was supposed to receive funds only from the governments of United Nations members,

But a few years ago, in order to swell its coffers WHO set up what it calls a “private partnership” 

that allows it to receive financial support from private industries.

 But which industries you ask?Why the pharmaceutical companies of course!
   https://www.globalresearch.ca/politics-corruption-who/5702045
 The bank JP Morgan on Wall Street estimated that, 
thanks mainly to the pandemic alert issued by the WHO in 2009,
the pharmaceutical giants, who also finance the work of the ESWI run by Albert Osterhaus, were set to make $7.5-$10 billion profit.

Could the fact that there is as yet no vaccine for Covid-19 have any bearing why the WHO is slow to declare a pandemic?

But Don't Panic.
When could we ever believe world governments or world institutions?
Believe that they are governed by self-interest and greed, and you will not be far from the truth.

Be prepared:

FOOD -
Store a 2 week supply of food and water in your home.

MEDICINE -
Check your regular prescription and over the counter drugs to be ready.

KEEP SAFE -
Wash your hands frequently.
Avoid touching your face and lips.
No handshakes or hugs. 
Asymptomatic people can still infect you: keep 6 feet apart from folks as much as possible.
Have a supply of n95 masks, dust masks, as they can filter out most harmful particulate matter. 
Stock up on toilet paper ... or used corn cobs. Ouch!

Remember COSTA MESA -
  A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order late Friday 
to halt the transportation of up to 50 people infected with a new virus from China to a Southern California city for quarantine 
who has tested positive for the new coronavirus to Costa Mesa, a city of 110,000 in the heart of Orange County.
You see, anyone who has tested positive for the virus cannot stay at the base 
and must be sent either to the hospital or if they're not sick enough, isolated until the infection has cleared.
It would have been to Fairview. 
Fairview is a 109-acre campus that was once home to about 2,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

It’s now nearly empty as the state has moved residents into community homes and other living situations.

A state lawmaker whose district includes Costa Mesa said he feared the virus could travel through the facility's air vents.

You think?  
Ask the passengers of the Diamond Princess about those deadly air vents.

50? 
 I thought the U.S. government said there were only 15 infected in America?
REMEMBERFOX MULDER




Trust your common senseand your instincts.

WEP: CAFE TERRACE IN 1895 CAIRO

https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/
(340 WORDS)
I sat on the terrace of Shepherd's. Shepherd's you ask?

Long before London’s Savoy or the Paris Ritz, Shepheard’s of Cairo was the epitome of glamour. 
I worked hard to keep it that way. 
It made Meilori, my wife, happy.
 It was a hotel from which explorers set off for Africa, where kings entertained mistresses, 
where socialites rubbed shoulders with officers on leave from the desert war, their uniforms still dusty with the sands of the Sudan— 
and spies hovered in the hope of minds being softened by the congenial atmosphere. 
Here daily thronged together some two to three hundred persons of all ranks, nationalities and pursuits – some legal, mostly illegal.

 Here were invalids in search of health; artists in search of subjects; sportsmen keen upon crocodiles; statesmen out for a holiday;
 special correspondents alert for gossip; collectors on the scent of papyri and mummies; men of science with only scientific ends in view.
Then, there was my "adopted" son, Samuel Clemens who hadn't noticed my mind wandering.

“Why I tell you, Captain Sam, we are on the verge of as grand and adventure as we enjoyed in the House of Life!” 


Oscar Wilde, our fellow fugitive from Egyptian law, sighed, 
“To quote Euripides: Sweet is the remembrance of troubles when you are in safety.”
 “Posh, Ostrich! We aren’t after buried alien star vessels this time but after the forgotten treasures of Pharaoh Two Tons of Almonds!” 
Oscar rolled his eyes. “That is Tutankhamun!” 
Sammy muttered, “My way of saying his name is easier.” 

Oscar scowled, 

“If that treasure map you bought from that ‘honest’ snake charmer is as accurate as your mangling of the Pharaoh’s name this expedition is doomed before it begins.”
Sammy chuckled, “My expedition will go down in history, Ostrich.”
I drawled, "The last time you said we would make history, we had to make bail instead."
Wilde shook his head“You Americans think that a cheque-book can solve every problem in life.” 
Sammy snorted, “Well, money may not buy happiness, but try being sick without it!”
Read the rest in THE STARS BLEED AT MIDNIGHT 
if you are curious.


Denise asked me to say a bit of what I've been doing all through my submitting to WEP.  
Besides hurricanes, being a rare blood courier, and assorted cancer surgeries ...
my sidebar says it all.
I never win these things, seldom get mentioned but as Sandra my best friend told me: 

"Roland, you write like Ray Bradbury ... but it is a Jacqueline Susann world. Don't expect to get far in it."
I reminded myself.  
'Ah, the wounds of a friend are faithful.'

 "Hello to all my friends, both new and old.  

Run for the thrill of the race not the prize and you'll have more fun."

HOW MUCH ARE YOU WILLING TO INVEST IN YOUR DREAM?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084P819CQ
KEEP A JOURNAL:

If you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. 

Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, 

what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. 


READ:


You need to read. You can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader. 
It’s the great writers who teach us how to write.
Don't tell me that you don't have time to read.   
This is like a man starting up Mount Everest saying that he didn’t have time to buy any rope or pitons.



WRITE:

Write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it’s for only half an hour — write, write, write.

Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if she is interested in technique. 
There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. 
The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. 
Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. 
The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. 
She has supreme vanity. 
No matter how much she admires the old writer, she wants to beat him.
What did Joss Whedon say?  "You either HAVE to write, or you shouldn't be writing at all."


LISTEN TO NEIL GAIMAN:

“Start telling the stories that only you can tell, 
because there’ll always be better writers than you 
and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. 
There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that – 
but you are the only you.”


TAKE THE TIME AND EFFORT TO BE AWARE:

Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. 
When you’re conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, 
you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. 
He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, 
in the prose pictures you have painted, 
and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of.
Try to leave the Ivory Tower School of Writing -- 
do not write about Man.
Write of A man ... or A woman ... 
trying to make sense of their lives, lost dreams, failed loves.
"Listen" to the stories of the lives around you.  
For it is in them that you will find the roots of your own novels.

START WRITING NOW:
Start writing right now. 
Don’t write it right, just write it –
and then make it right later. 
Give yourself the mental freedom to enjoy the process, 
because the process of writing is a long one. 
Be wary of “writing rules” and advice. Do it your way.

Ignore critics. 
Critics are a dime a dozen. Anybody can be a critic. Writers are priceless.

Go where the pleasure is in your writing. Go where the pain is.
 Write the book you would like to read. 
Write the book you have been trying to find but have not found. 
But write.


LEARN TO LISTEN TO YOUR INSTINCTS:

Learn to trust your own judgment, 
learn inner independence, learn to trust that time will sort the good from the bad – 
including your own bad.
Every writer knows fear and discouragement. 
Just write. 
The world is crying for new writing.
 It is crying for fresh and original voices and new characters and new stories. 
If you won’t write the classics of tomorrow, well, we will not have any.

How much time do you put into writing each day?