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Saturday, September 13, 2014

WHAT WE LEARN TOO LATE



"Sure, the world is cold.  It is our job to build fires."
   - Samuel McCord

What would Samuel McCord tell us today? 


1.) Time Is Not Limitless


     That we have more time than we do is an illusion not just for the young.  

When young, we focus on ourselves and our dreams, thinking we have all the time in the world.  

As we get older we fall under the spell of denial.

     As our friend, Tina, has taught us:

Time is the only treasure we start off with in abundance and can never get back 


 Make the most of the opportunities you have today because there will be a time when you will have no more of it.  


2.)  Talent is no substitute for hard work ... or for empathy.


     How many doctors have you met that seemed to have left their compassion in their other jacket pocket?

     We may have skill at writing, at any number of things but we still have to pay our dues to be a member of the human race.

     And those dues include seeing those around us as fellow strugglers in the battles of life.


3.)  Social Media is not your career ... or your life.


     If you are a writer, write ... and write a lot.  The more books in your backlist the more promise your future holds.

     You are alive so LIVE.  Life is more than pasting cat pictures on FB.  Play with your cat, your children.

     Take a walk outside.  

SEE, EXPERIENCE the world.  At the end of your trail, it will be the laughter among friends, among family that you will remember.

     Gold ribbons tarnish.  Memories of love and friendship nurture.


4.)  Take responsibility for your mistakes.


     Mistakes are the tuition you pay to grow stronger, better.  But if you bury them, you lose what good might have come from them.


5.) Don't wait to be told what to do ... or what to write.


     Once you're an adult, no one will tell you what you need to read, to eat, or when to exercise

     You may dream of having a beautiful rose garden, but unless you plant, water, prune, and weed, 

a dream will be all you have.  And dreams do not have lush scents or velvet petals.


6.)  If your words cannot improve the silence, remain quiet.


     We have raised a generation of sh_t talkers.  So often those around us mistake cool for character.

     That is true of fiction as well as in real life. 

 Is your book worth the effort of reading?  Are your words healing or helpful?


7.) Read more books and fewer tweets and texts.

 
Our generation consumes information in headlines and 140 characters:  All breadth and no depth.  

     And that limitation impacts the way we think and how well.  

What limits your thinking hobbles your mind in what choices you make ... in living and in writing.

      Creativity, thoughtfulness and thinking skills are freed when you’re forced to read a full book cover to cover.  

All the keys to your future success lay in the past experience of others ...

which you will find in books. 


17 comments:

  1. Accepting responsibility is a huge step. Other people's actions might have put us where we are today (good or bad), but our future direction in ours to decide.

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  2. Elephant's Child:
    Accepting responsibility for our actions is so hard ... but the hard things are usually what are most important for us to do, right?

    Thank you for visiting! :-)

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  3. Unfortunately, I spent more time playing with your 'toy pet' making it purr, than I spent concentrating on what I was going to say. Too cute!

    Anyway, I imagine it was something like this - 'excellent post, Roland':)

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  4. I played with the virtual cat, too, since it looked like my old cat who now resides in Cat Paradise.

    The hard things are the ones that Life throws at us. . .we can either duck, bob and weave, or catch it and deal with it.

    I Like this: "What limits your thinking hobbles your mind in what choices you make ... in living and in writing."

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  5. Wendy:
    Blame DeeDee. And thank her. She let me know how to get Maukie my virtual cat back!!

    I was stewing on what I was going to write for today when this post came to me. I'm glad you liked it ... and Maukie! I'm going off to play with the little guy now, too. :-)

    D.G.:
    Our beloved pets become a part of us, don't they?

    Sometimes life throws us a curve ball that catches us by surprise. We need all the grey cells then to deal with it, right?

    I pray that your husband and daughter grow ever stronger. :-)

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  6. Wendy & D.G.:
    If you put your cursor by his paws, he sometimes paws at it. :-)

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  7. Oh, and the cursor on his head has him Meow! On his body will make him purr. ;-0

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  8. Of course I had to try all three with Maukie, and it made me smile. A good way to start the day. Thanks for the good wishes and the cat tips, Roland!

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  9. Fewer Tweets! I can do that. Wait, I already do.
    Working on the backlist.
    And see others as God sees them - worth the price of the greatest sacrifice ever.

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  10. D.G.:
    Maukie is a happy cat with all this attention! :-)

    Alex:
    I do a bit of Twitter: to fight for Longmire and to support others and occasionally point to my work. But few Tweets and less FB from me usually. I'm too busy working!!

    When a teen I had a hard time praying for my enemies since I knew the Father knew my heart!

    Then, I read a book title: I LOVE THE PERSON GOD MEANT FOR YOU TO BE and I knew I could honestly pray for my enemy to become the person God meant him or her to be.

    Have a healing Sunday, Alex!

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  11. Nilanjana:
    I've never gotten in trouble from something I DIDN'T say! :-)

    So many hurt others with their lack of thought in their words.

    Thanks for visiting and commenting!

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  12. Yep, I figured out that myself :) Maukie has been purring and meowing incessantly ever since :))

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  13. I've known for a couple years I should quit writing with an eye toward publication, but I've spent my life with a single goal and worked hard to get to a position where I could pursue it. It's a very scary thing to let go of a lifelong dream. But I don't fit this world. Twitter is background noise. Reality TV is anything but. I abhor the violence and the disrespect and the cults of money and celebrity that rule our culture. I'd choose not to write before I'd write for hire or write formula stories. I always take responsibility for my actions and sometimes for others' as well if it will calm a situation. Time IS precious, and I wonder why I'm wasting mine, but what does one do when one's dream no longer exists?

    VR Barkowski

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  14. Wendy:
    You've made Maukie a very happy cyber cat! He sends a special purr your way. Have an especially grand new week. :-)

    Viva:
    The publishing world has changed so much in these last few years. Moods and tastes change unexpectedly.

    I, too, have given up the hope that my work will ever be traditionally published or that my novels will ever be popular.

    But as lives evolve, so do dreams. With self-publishing, we can get our work out there. With a thousand Kindle titles being published a month it is to be even noticed, much less stand out.

    It helps me to realize that creative minds have never fit the world in which they found themselves.

    It is the way of the world to praise dead saints and persecute live ones. The same is true of authors.

    Someone seems to have put grease under the skids of this whole world.

    You're right: reality TV panders to the lowest impulses of humanity. Kayne West just demanded a man in a wheelchair stand up for his Yeesus song before he would go on.

    But then again, Thomas Jefferson kept the sons he had with a slave as slaves. Life has always had its ugly underbelly.

    It is my belief (funneled through my avatar, Sam McCord) that we deal with this cold world by lighting fires however we can.

    Accepting responsibility for others' misdeeds can be tempting to momentarily restore calm, but it only reinforces those people's denial and negative behavior. It will, however, defuse the situation long enough to get out of the door!

    Hold fast to your dream. Life changes daily bit by bit like the minute hand of a clock. Who knows when the spotlight might fall on your work?

    You are not wasting your time by being true to your heart and growing as an author, sowing new seeds each season for an uncertain harvest. Dreams have a way of reaping fruit in unexpected fashion. I believe in you, Viva.

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  15. Lots of good advice here Roland my friend. Good take on social media. It appears a necessary evil for a writer.

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  16. Denise:
    On Twitter when everyone is shouting BUY ME! does anyone even hear us?

    Your story for Melissa Bradley's anthology was outstanding. :-)

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