Super

Today marks the end of the 2019 American football season, and I’m holed up in my office, mostly avoiding the commotion. Seems about par for the course. Except that this year started with much more social activity than is the norm for us–including an extended visit from a friend we hadn’t seen in fifteen years.

The upshot of all this is that I’ve only written 500 words on Team TaoRuti since the new year.

As the meme indicates, experience with writing means considering all the angles while you’re in the middle of the slog. And thinking about the implications of choices even while you’re making them.

It’s not that different from life, actually.

But when you control the narrative, the echoes of those choices have weight and bearing in ways that aren’t so obvious as a newbie. With experience, they can become almost paralyzing. And then you read about the behavioral flaws common to humans, and you realize … that’s actually also a common human experience. So is mental fatigue. That last article made me wonder: is there such a thing as conditioning yourself to “be productive” on the regular? Then there’s the research that shows the level of impact of “luck” on “success”, too, and it becomes a wonder that anyone can sustain effort.

On the science research side of my reading, I discovered Christopher Medina-Kirchner, and his journey in learning about MDMA. His persistence in the face of ridiculous odds are on the one hand a heartbreaking case study about pseudo-science and class oppression, and on the other how scientific research takes guts and doggedness to break through stereotypes and preconceptions.

Two other thought-provoking articles have been tickling my brain recently, too. One on a team that appears to have proven the quantum entanglement of time. (For all you Outlander fans…) And then there was a vaguely disturbing summary of technical advances that have led to some cyborg-like implants to broaden the scope of human senses.

I hope all this percolates in a way that allows me to power forward with my own words. Certainly, I’ve enjoyed beta-ing for some of my writer friends, figuring out how to go back to weave in those bits of foreshadowing that underline the protagonists’ arcs. And being on that side of the experience reminds me it’s a good thing to return to Zen Mind, Beginner Mind state. I can always go back to edit… once I have words on the page.

So it’s back to the word mines I go.