That Moment When a Simple Blog Post Turns into a Memoir...
Several weeks ago — or maybe it was over a month — I was going to write a fairly simple post (I thought) about my initial arrival in the USA, from Europe, in 1981.
From a tiny shoot grows... what?
One thing led to another, and soon that post started suffering from a really bad case of what I like to call "creeping elegance." That is, I decorated the post with extra backstory and explanatory asides... and in short order it became very clear that I would have to break the post into maybe three serialized posts.
I tried to "tidy" the story a bit, and by the time I'd done that I was faced with having written some 4,500 words of narrative and barely having gotten the protagonist (that would be me!) to his final destination, let alone had a chance to look around, explore and experience the culture shock.
Then I got mired down in our pervasive property tax issues and more or less forgot the whole idea, because it no longer was a "quick and easy blog post" but instead an unwieldy monster not really suited for the blogosphere.
On the other hand...
Part of the description/mission of the Silver Bloggers Community — of which I have become quite fond — is precisely to write of our life experiences and memories, including the "long" ones.
So, I'm still not done with this particular story... but it'll definitely have to be serialized when I get finished. At some point, when I feel like I actually am finished.
Meanwhile...
It seems like spring has finally sprung around these parts. Our various fruit trees have set bloom and soon we'll past the "last frost date" which means our gardening season can begin. Somehow, I feel like I need something really "earthy" to take my mind off the world and all its garbage.
I think that sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves when the world feels like it has gone crazy is get back to very basic things like getting our hands in the dirt.
And yes, this does have a bearing on the original title of this post, because so often creative ideas come to us when we are "busy doing something else." And so, it seems likely that gardening season will help me finally finish this strange memoir-like post I once embarked on writing.
Meanwhile (II)...
In a few days, we get to hand over a small king's ransom to the local taxing authorities so we can get past the lingering sword of Damocles that has been hanging over us in the form of our property tax bill.
Yeah, I know, right now there are a bunch of you predictably saying "Taxation is theft!" in your heads, and at the moment I am somewhat inclined to agree... but I won't get into that whole discussion!
Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of your week!
How about YOU? Ever start writing something you thought was "simple," only to end up with a small and possibly chaotic "novel?" Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220323 02:30 PST
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