Ever Feel Like You’re Spitting Into The Wind?

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.
—     Albert Camus
.
On This Day In:
2021	On Learning To Play Guitar
	When You’re Feeling Small
2020	Remember Your Obligation
	Smile And Shuffle
2019	If One Is Lucky Enough
	Basic Training (In Films)
2018	Being President Doesn’t Make You Presidential
	Day 27: 4 Weeks / 55lbs
2017	I’m Seeing It, Too
2016	Personal Decisions
2015	Verbal Fluency
2014	Familiar
2013	Unbending
2012	Simple Sayings
2011	Wupped Again?
2010	3 and 1…
	Musical Notes…
	Doubt Tries…
	Northwest Passages – Evening Two
	The Beierly’s Web Site

Read Full Post »

School Needs

In 1970 the top three skills required by the Fortune 500 were the three Rs:  reading, writing, and arithmetic.  In 1999 the top three skills in demand were teamwork, problem-solving, and inter-personal skills.  We need schools that are developing these skills.
—    Linda Darling-Hammond
Professor, Stanford University
Quoted by:  Joshua Davis
From his article:  “Free Thinkers“
Appearing in:  Wired Magazine;  dtd:  November 2013
.
On This Day In:
2021	Dragging
	Maverick And Goose?
2020	I’m Just Being Skeptical
	Setting My Feet Upon The Road
2019	We’re Eating Faster And Enjoying It Less
2018	Great Views
	Day 8: One At A Time
2017	Trump Supporters Will Always Find An Excuse
2016	More Posts
2015	A Last Request
2014	It Matters
2013	And You Are?
2012	Not Too Late
2011	Persistence
2009	Health Care?

Read Full Post »

I’ve Lost My Share

Ideas aren’t magical;  the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.
—     Lynn Abbey
.
On This Day In:
2021	You Decide
	A Dream And The Wind
2020	Making Me
2019	Inside Your Head
2018	Lingering Curiosity
2017	Just Kidding
2016	The Danger Of Walls
2015	Protection
2014	Let It Go
2013	Don’t Know And Not Telling
2012	A Challenge For Progress
2011	Dependent Difficulty

Read Full Post »

First, To Understand

First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind.  If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it.  We do not write in order to be understood;  we write in order to understand.
—    Cecil Day-Lewis
[Found at one of the blogs I follow:  Just A Small Town Girl…
The specific post is at:  C.D. Lewis Quote – Just A Small Town Girl… (sauj4.com)
Please visit the original site if you have a few spare moments…    —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2021	So How Should We Persuade The Dangerous?
	Can A Loser Ever Win?
2020	Maybe More Than A Very Few
2019	Missing Failure
2018	Praise God
2017	Necessary Gaps
2016	Nor My Dogs
2015	Say What?
	I’m A Dog, Too!
	Beginnings
2014	Astonishing Choices
2013	Three Hard Tasks
2012	The Only Remains
2011	Personal Capability
	What Price Failure?
	Both Of W’s Elections
	Tea (Baggers) Anyone?

Read Full Post »

It Doesn’t Stop

The trouble is even if you write something good you still have to write something else.  You still have to write again.  And again after that.  The itch doesn’t stop.  The need does not subside.  It is not erased just because you gave a thing a chance.
—    Allison Marie Conway
[This has been “borrowed” from one of the blogs / sites I follow:  https://allisonmarieconway.com/  without advance permission.  I hope the author doesn’t mind.  This excerpt is a part of a longer post at the original site and is posted here because the words resonated with (for?) me.  They strike at the core of a writer’s “need” to write, but I imagine the need is the same for any artist in any genre.
The specific post is located at:  Eventually You Break – Allison Marie Conway
https://allisonmarieconway.com/2021/05/26/eventually-you-break/
Her writing is quite good, but does tend to “adult” themes.  Give her site a view if you have a spare moment.    —    KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2020	#45: 14.81 Lies Per Day
2019	Less Miserable Now
	So Near And Yet So Far
2018	I Doubt #45 Is Listening?
2017	Life’s Oddity
2016	Just Asking…
2015	Two Thoughts On Thinking
2014	From The Top, Please…
2013	You Are The Stars
2012	Just One??
2011	Anything But

Read Full Post »

Books And Blogs

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.
―     Socrates
.
On This Day In:
2021	Still Building
	Golden
2020	Books And Blogs
	You Don’t Know What I Got
2019	#45 Is The Inverse
2018	A Message To The White House Press Corps
2017	Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
	Binge, Binge, Binge
2016	Feeling Warm Yet?
	Four Documentaries
2015	Just Like All The Others
2014	In My Own Vanity
2013	Filled With Words
2012	Lectio Auget Existentiae Meae
2011	Lied Lately?
2010	Born To Work At Faux News
	Lost Again (Uh, Make That Still)
	Qui Genus Humanum Ingenio Superavit
	They’re Back… (Part 1)

Read Full Post »

Does Blogging Count?

Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.
—    Albert Camus
.
On This Day In:
2021	Givin’ It All Away
	Memories Will Remind You
2020	Does Blogging Count?
	Just Like You
2019	None Absolutely Certain
	Destroying The Republic
2018	Maps For Those Difficult Times
2017	A True American Hero
	Or Desserts
2016	What #AmnestyDon Is Really Afraid Of
2015	What Are You Doing?
2014	The Ideal Man
2013	Daring Ripples
2012	Evermore
2011	Unpredictable Opportunity
2010	Giants Fall In Game 2 (1 to 6) – Leave PA With 1-1 Split !!

Read Full Post »

I Hadn’t Thought Of That

I write to discover what I think.  After all, the bars aren’t open that early.
—   Daniel J. Boorstin
.
On This Day In:
2021	Of Course The Term “Value” Is Undefined
	Waiting
2020	I Hadn’t Thought Of That
	Keep Looking!
2019	Knocking On Impeachment’s Door
2018	Do You Remember?
2017	Choose Life
	My Response To President Trump’s Threat To NBC
2016	We, Us, All
2015	No Less
2014	Life Advice (50)
	Orange October (IV) – Giants Win Game 1 Of NLCS!
2013	Running To
2012	Suddenly
2011	Liberal Washington
2010	Giants Advance To NLCS!!

Read Full Post »

Appropriated To Her Being

At first she thought the writing would be easy.  She was extremely confident in her ability to dream, to imagine, and she supposed that expressing her dreams in words, in writing, would be entirely natural, like drawing breath.  She had read widely from the time she was a child, and she knew how to recognize something that was well written.  She admired certain lines and passages so much that she had taken complete possession of them and committed them to memory.  She could recite “The Gettysburg Address” and “The Twenty-Third Psalm.”  She could recite “Jabberwocky” and Emily Dickinson’s “Further in summer that the birds” and Wallace Stevens’s “Sunday Morning.”  She knew by heart the final paragraph of Joyce’s “The Dead,” and if challenged she could say in whole the parts of both Romeo and Juliet.  And she knew many Kiowa stories and many long prayers in Navajo.  These were not feats of memory in the ordinary sense;  it was simply that she attended to these things so closely that they became a part of her most personal experience.  She had assumed them, appropriated them to her being.
But to write!  She discovered that was something else again.
—    Navarre Scott Momaday
.
On This Day In:
2021	Current Heroes (II)
	Glued To The TV – 3,000 Miles Away
2020	Current Heroes
	I’m Mid-West Born, But California Raised
	Appropriated To Her Being
2019	All In Good Time
	Day 13: Pause & Resume
	Ghrelin And Leptin
2018	Gratitude And Warmth
	Remembering Loss, Sacrifice And Service
	Making Little Ones Out Of Bigger Ones
2017	Never Forget
2016	It’s All Greek To Me (Well, Latin Actually)
2015	Truism
2014	Thank You
2013	Really
2012	Ordinary Five Minutes Longer
2011	The Wealth Of Sons (And Daughters)

Read Full Post »

Stand First

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
––     Henry David Thoreau
.
On This Day In:
2019	Tough Values
2018	I’m Still Here
	Day 31: A Calendar Month
2017	Start Typing
2016	Just Saying (Nothing)
	Thought Of You
	Saldaga (“As I’ve Lived”)
2015	A Terrifying Cycle
2014	Rights
2013	Do Bold Things
2012	Seven Causes
2011	I Feel A Tingle Coming On

Read Full Post »

Insensitive To Silence

Writing engenders in us certain attitudes toward language. It encourages us to take words for granted.  Writing has enabled us to store vast quantities of words indefinitely.  This is advantageous on the one hand but dangerous on the other.  The result is that we have developed a kind of false security where language is concerned, and our sensitivity to language has deteriorated.  And we have become in proportion insensitive to silence.
—     Navarre Scott Momaday
.
On This Day In:
2019	Judging Success
2018	Something Else
	Day 21: 10% Loss
2017	Courage
2016	Don’t H8! — I’m With Her!!
2015	$20 Anyone?
2014	And Yet I Still Study
2013	Use Your Own
2012	Strengthen Freedom
2011	Attrition = A Lack Of Imagination
2010	Mind The Fire, Love
	Just Beyond My Reach…
	Even A Life Of Quiet Desperation!
	Acts Of Courage

Read Full Post »

And The Same Goes For Blogs / Posts

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.
––    W. Somerset Maugham
.
On This Day In:
2019	Not Enough
2018	One Thing We Do Know
2017	Preservation
2016	Going Back
2015	Just For Today
2014	Reaching For Destiny
2013	Still Just Passing Through
2012	Live Or Die
2011	On Secession
2010	A Rocky Weekend

Read Full Post »

Insensitive To Silence

Writing engenders in us certain attitudes toward language.  It encourages us to take words for granted.  Writing has enabled us to store vast quantities of words indefinitely.  This is advantageous on the one hand but dangerous on the other.  The result is that we have developed a kind of false security where language is concerned, and our sensitivity to language has deteriorated.  And we have become in proportion insensitive to silence.
—    N. Scott Momaday
.
On This Day In:
2019	Don’t Be Small
2018	Persistence
2017	Are You A Loser?
2016	Constitution And Conscience
2015	Separate, Fearful And Imprisoned
2014	Something Worth Making
2013	Absolutely
2012	Can Do
2011	Wise Criticism

Read Full Post »

Why Are So Many Of My Posts Simply Quotes?

Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?
—    Ralph Waldo Emerson
[Usually, because their authors are so much better writers than I am.  But I do keep trying…  No matter how problematic it is for you to read my original thoughts.  LoL   —  KMAB]
.
On This Day In:
2019	Two Books
2018	Prime Example = #45
2017	Building On
2016	Dueling Heroes
2015	Remarkable Creations
2014	Measured Faith
2013	April Fool, n.
2012	Faith, Ego And Patriotism
	As It Happens
2011	What Counts

Read Full Post »

Write For Yourself

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
––     Cyril Connolly
.
On This Day In:
2019	I’m Actively Irresponsible
2018	I Will Love You… Forever
2017	Pebbles In Your Shoe?
2016	Resolute Will
2015	Absorbed And Civilized
2014	Relax And Lead
2013	Location, Location, Location
2012	Are You Really Good?
2011	Relatively Objective, Anyway

Read Full Post »