The sun sets on another day…
Sunset was wild as it broke from the clouds in the last second. Taking my picture in the car moving was not such a good idea, but it was a memory I will not forget.
I tried to join as many writing groups as I can so that I can see perspectives of people around the country and often around the world. I have read a significant number of writing books and continue to do so. Some of them are very helpful and open my mind to other possibilities, some of them have tasks and work and try to push one way or another, some are rigid, some are loose, some make a difference, others are added to the stack of books that sit to the side and hold their sparkly magic for me to look at again someday. Whether good or bad does not matter, what matters is increasing my perspective beyond what I think I have learned.
I was in one of these groups once talking about a famous poem and one of the leaders of the group regurgitated a series of words, I had heard dozens of times that could have been textbook pulled out of any treatise on the writer. I smiled and nodded and thought about poetry and prose for just a moment simply because what they had programmed themselves to know was only a piece of the picture. As I have absorbed more and more, I have built an opinion that the best rating elicits multiple possibilities and creates a situation where there is no right or wrong. It is here that I find myself often considering the possibilities and visions of both myself and others and the sub stories and stories beneath even those. A few words in a poem can mean a lot, a few more in a story can open minds to possibilities.
In a movie called Superman the villain makes a statement that “Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it’s a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe” and that statement sticks with me. There are very good writers that in a few words create resonance in our minds and whether two roads diverged in front of us, or a raven speaks of “nevermore” there is more than just what we see. What lies before us is a rabbit hole where we can consider more than just what we think is true or what we have been taught is true but actually use our minds in a manner that opens us to the possibilities of the imagination. It saddens me when people become overly educated or overly opinionated because they now are lost from that imagination and being able to consider more.
In the past several years I have heard the word “science” used over and over to explain right and wrong or try to prove one thing or another. Science, however, follows this very pattern as new data becomes available science grows and science changes. A true scientist is always questioning and opening their mind to possibilities. Where mathematics is usually finite, science is infinite. Scientists have the passion and prowess to see beyond just the patterns and look for more. In our world it is the scientist that finds the mountain top and reaches higher looking for the sky and perhaps the stars above. This bit of amazement should live within all of us, and we should all be scientists looking for the fantastic possibilities that lie before.
Today I was part of one such writing group and while I was in it a picture was presented and we all wrote about that picture. There are more steps of course but the vision created by us all was from the same source and though the theme was sometimes similar, the power behind it forced minds into new and exciting arenas where soared and leaf were as powerful and where there were no limits beyond those put on ourselves.
What followed was amazing and as I listened I wanted to read more and hear more from the minds that were creating and giving a perspective beyond what was there. In the end, there could be nothing more spectacular.
So as the sun sets on another day, don’t put yourself in a mental prison. Open your mind to possibilities. Define yourself today and every day and find that passion into a world where we continue to learn and don’t get lost in the muck. Life is worth it every day and you are at the center of that. Keep growing no matter what.
Sleep sweet, love life, and I feel the storm…