Saturday, November 21, 2009

That Yucky Verbal Diarrhea


Those of us who love to write but have nothing really significant to say and even less skill in saying it are like the distracting  nats of the evening air. We arrive at a pause in the day, not large enough to really cause a ruckus, nor interesting enough to cause a little pain, but still annoyingly dancing there in front of your face and being a distraction from the lovely sunset as you lose your place in blogdom.  You feel guilty because they did comment on your post yesterday and so you tediously read through the post and hope to find some grain or idea to help you comment and to return the favor.

This writing is an addiction with us. We love the words and we love the pictures we can paint with them. No, we cannot paint like Van Gogh or tell a story like Vermeer with light and shadow, but we are compelled to take the white screen canvas and sprinkle letters here and there hoping they form words and hoping eventually the words form sentences and perhaps, miracle of miracles, a complete thought! Keeping that train of thought on the track is another task frequently beyond our enthusiastic and spastic skill. Getting to the point of a story or valuable lesson is certainly a challenge for our energetic scribbling. You may wonder...DO we have a POINT as we scribble through the list of the mundane activities of our day?


But, you, my blog readers, are ever so forgiving, because you faithfully return. You let me splash a noun here and smear a verb there and even overuse the exclamation point. You let me clutter the canvas with superlatives.  You wonder if I have ever heard of "spell check."  You wonder why I put every other phrase in quotes and you wish the parenthesis keys on my keyboard would break.  You let me split infinitives (whatever they are) and end sentences with prepositions all in an effort to capture something that was recently remembered from my past or to describe something routine that happened that day and to try to make it significant......because you know that sometimes I get lucky and actually post something interesting and a little thought provoking.   And then we can both smile at the end of the day.  I need you in this dance of design.

(The photo is something I was motivated to do because one of my bloggers is working on textures with her photos and I remembered I had this taken this rose photo in my garden this past summer.  I have reduced the size substantially, but it still holds the texture effect, I think.  You will have to click on the photo to really get the furry texture.)

17 comments:

  1. I can almost feel the rose in the photo. Beautiful.

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  2. Beautiful - and your postings make me smile, learn and what other words can I use on this early morning. To early to think!!

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  3. I never think of any of those grammar/syntax things when I read your posts!!

    The rose photo is magnificent.

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  4. I am one of those who have less skill in saying my thoughts. But I'd like to thank you for always dropping by my blog. I truly appreciate it. :)

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  5. The beauty of your photography often obscures the elegance of your prose, Tabor.

    I've meant to comment on that several times in the past.

    But this seems the perfect moment.

    You are a very fine writer.

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  6. Barr, you are making me blush and I haven't done that in a looong time.

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  7. I spirited all my words out during my mad years, but I find I still doggedly write every day. And I like the writing itself even if I have nothing at all to say. Shame on me.

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  8. Beautiful, you've hit the nail on the head with this one.

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  9. Actually Tabor, your words do more than paint a painting. They allow the reader the ability to paint their own images and your incredible photography is inspiring.

    You, are a work of art yourself and I always look forward to going wherever they are going to take me.

    Shirliana

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  10. Well, heck, of course! Style is nice, but content is what brings me back.

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  11. RYN: It was our way at the time. After Jo's death, everything changed for all of us here. As with other groups of artists, art has to be the central focus or life doesn't work. When my central focus became survival, my art faded away. Both Dan and Tim are still working artists today, but their early work was their most important stuff.

    Those of us who didn't have families were able to keep their focus on their work. My first husband did have a second family, but with his focus on his work, the family suffered as a whole. Focus and passion are not 9 to five. Look at Picasso and all his wives as an example.

    Hugs.........

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  12. "When it comes to writing songs, I've learned as much from Cezanne as Woody Guthrie." Bob Dylan
    Love your writing - you fill each canvas with wit and wisdom!

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  13. I enjoy the fact that I can lapse in blog reading (and writing) and no-one is offended.

    My only concern is that sometimes I may be enjoying a lovely experience, and wonder how it would look in a blog post, and prompty miss the moment!!

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  14. RYN: Yes, it is G's sobriety birthday. The box on the right of my blog usually has the day to day stuff we are, I am, doing in our lives. Even in this retrospective blog series, I have kept up the current information there in the box. :)

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  15. Your writing and your photos are lovely. You're very talented in both areas and that's what brings us back time and time again. Keep on sprinkling. :)

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  16. I'm not proud of all my posts but I feel the same, that my readers hang in there pretty good.

    I think this was wonderfully written and I think your writing has been and will become more unleashed now that you have more time to do it. It held my attention because I was struck by the way it was crafted and was curious about what you'd say next and how.

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  17. Blogging is the ultimate self-indulgence.

    I am about to write a blog (incorporating the above phrase) on why i blog and how come I started blogging and other such stuff which shouldn't really interest anybody else. A lot of the time I feel quite embarrassed both when I write and when i read blogs, but, what the hell, it's become addictive and until such time as I get bored with it and myself, i'll continue.
    Mind you, sometimes I do now think that perhaps a break might be a good idea.

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Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.