Persistence And Enthusiasm

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Below is one of the pictures I snapped yesterday while walking on Speedway at the wash running along Camino Seco, across that street from the CVS pharmacy.

Snow On The Mountains

(click pic for larger view)

From Speedway Blvd. & Camino Seco

January 1, 2015 - Tucson, Arizona

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

For quite some time now I have seen in myself a certain lack (loss?) of the enthusiasm I had enjoyed from an earlier time. And I seem to have just accepted this loss as a part of the process of growing old. But now I am having second thoughts on the matter. How much, I wonder, is the existence of enthusiasm, in the face of old age's piddling pains, tied to and dependent upon one's artificially induced mental attitude?

I ask: Can enthusiasm be summoned up and put to use simply by the seemingly intangible force of will?

James Whitcomb Riley - a poet from Indiana - once said, "The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come."

Can I, then, simply by persisting, by writing even when I feel physically ill, or think I've nothing to say, or bowing to one or more of the millions of other excuses for sloth, eventually bring myself some success in having produced a considerable bulk of worthwhile written works?

It seems as though I might.

Perhaps.

If, as long as I live, I merely push myself to persist...

...what have I to lose?

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Here is one of the first poem I read, enjoyed, and remember from way back when, from the time I was a wild young brat living in my hometown of Rensselaer, Indiana, where the Little Cousin Jasper festival still occurs each year.

Little Cousin Jasper
by
James Whitcomb Riley

Little Cousin Jasper, he
Don't live in this town, like me, --
He lives 'way to Rensselaer,
An' ist comes to visit here.

He says 'at our court-house square
Ain't nigh big as theirn is there! --
He says their town's big as four
Er five towns like this, an' more!

He says ef his folks moved here
He'd cry to leave Rensselaer --
'Cause they's prairies there, an' lakes,
An' wile-ducks an' rattlesnakes!

Yes, 'n' little Jasper's Pa
Shoots most things you ever saw! --
Wunst he shot a deer, one day,
'At swummed off an' got away.

Little Cousin Jasper went
An' camped out wunst in a tent
Wiv his Pa, an' helt his gun
While he kilt a turrapun.

An' when his Ma heerd o' that,
An' more things his Pa's bin at,
She says, " Yes, 'n' he'll git shot
'Fore he's man-grown, like as not! "

An' they's mussrats there, an' minks,
An' di-dippers, an' chee-winks, --
Yes, 'n' cal'mus-root you chew
All up an' 't 'on't pizen you!

An', in town, 's a flag-pole there --
Highest one 'at's anywhere
In this world!  --  rite in the street
Where the big mass-meetin's meet.

Yes, 'n' Jasper he says they
Got a brass band there, an' play
On it, an' march up an' down
An' all over round the town!

Wisht our town ain't like it is! --
Wisht it's ist as big as his!
Wisht 'at his folks they'd move here,
An' we'd move to Rensselaer!

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Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
--Winston Churchill

This Is Who I Am

   

Some Of This And Some Of That

     

Tucson Weather Today

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At a Tavis Smiley interview with someone or other on PBS, the interviewee remarked, regarding himself as the habitual drunk: "...because after a few drinks, I would become rich, handsome, and bullet-proof."

I don't know if that was an original description of his or not, but it struck me as being a profound observation, and I will probably use the line in a fiction story, someday.

Yes, I still have passing delusions of being able to write meaningful fiction one of these days. Why not?

Of course, while I am pursuing that endeavor I probably will be unable to also write interesting stuff for this blog.

Oh well . . . what else is new?

Whatever will be will be.

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PBS is temporarily presenting some older movies at noon here in Tucson, which gives me the opportunity to view them commercial-free. Yesterday I watched Giant which is a film from 1956 that I had (unbelievably) never seen, with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Carroll Baker, Jane Withers, Chill Wills, Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, and Earl Holliman. Even with no commercials, I sat and watched it all the way through, from 12 noon until 3:15 P.M.

It's somewhat sad to realize that almost the entire cast is now dead and buried... and either forgotten or never known by those of the newest generation.

Tomorrow at noon is to be Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, and others. I have seen the movie a few times over the years but still look forward to seeing it again.

What? My time could be better spent writing stories than idly watching old movies, you say?

I disagree.

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Did You Know . . .?

In the year 2013 the Voyager 1 spacecraft became the first human-made object to enter interstellar space.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1999 after three days of high winds and heavy snow, people in the Great Lakes region begin digging out from one of the worst blizzards on record. More than 100 people died in storm-related accidents. The storm began on January 1, when snow began falling across Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. Most areas saw at least 15 inches of snow before the storm moved on.

The storm caused treacherous road conditions throughout the region. A 60-car pile-up on January 2 in Wisconsin resulted in scores of injuries and one death. In Indiana, a 100-mile stretch of Interstate 65 was closed for a full two days. When the snow finally stopped on January 3, record cold temperatures arrived. In Congerville, Illinois, a state record low of -36 degrees was reached. In the aftermath, President Bill Clinton declared Illinois and Indiana disaster areas and sent federal relief.

In all, more than 100 deaths--as many as 36 from heart attacks--were attributed to the terrible blizzard of January 1999.

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WORD FOR TODAY

macilent
adjective
-  lean, thin, or shriveled
-  lacking in substance

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson

(born January 3, 1956)

Mel Gibson is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films in the first half of the decade were Forever Young, Lethal Weapon 3, Maverick, and Braveheart. He then starred in Ransom, Conspiracy Theory, Lethal Weapon 4, and Payback. Gibson also served as the speaking and singing voice of John Smith in Disney's Pocahontas.

After 2000 Gibson acted in three films that each grossed over $100 million: The Patriot, Chicken Run, and What Women Want. In 2002, Gibson appeared in the Vietnam War drama We Were Soldiers and M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, which became the highest-grossing film of Gibson's acting career.

Danica Mae McKellar

(born January 3, 1975)

Danica McKellar is an American actress, film director, and book author. She played Winnie Cooper in the television show The Wonder Years, and later wrote four non-fiction books: Math Doesn't Suck, Kiss My Math, Hot X: Algebra Exposed and Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape, which encourage middle-school and high-school girls to have confidence and succeed in mathematics.

Dabney Wharton Coleman

(born January 3, 1932)

Dabney Coleman is an American actor. Coleman is perhaps best known for roles in 9 to 5, Cloak & Dagger, Tootsie, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.

Victoria Principal

(born January 3, 1950)
Photo Removed

Victoria Principal is an American actress, author and businesswoman best known for her role as Pamela Barnes Ewing on the CBS nighttime soap opera Dallas from 1978 to 1987.

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There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.
--Bette Davis

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Back In The Olden Days

Tucson Weather Today

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Do you remember the TV sitcom titled The Beverly Hillbillies? Do you remember the song that was playing during the intro? "...and then one day he was shootin' fer some food..."

That's the way I think of guns. As tools of subsistence. That's how it was around my hometown in rural Indiana back in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. I grew up with guns. Using shotguns to shoot birds: quail and pheasant and ducks, and such. A .22 rifle for wild rabbits tracked through winter snow, and for squirrels crouched on boughs in Autumn trees.

They probably don't remember, but my four kids spent their early childhoods eating a great array of wild game and various critters provided by the use of guns.


My dad, being the long-time custodian of the County Courthouse, often was required by the County Commissioners to do the shooting of pigeons up on the courthouse roof. The roosting birds made a terrible mess on the sidewalks and strollers below. They had to be culled. And a .22 rifle was the most economical method for doing that.

Pigeons. I remember my mom plucking them, eviscerating them, cutting them into portions, and then cooking them, all of us eating them, and we shared them with less fortunate families of folks who were grateful to get them.

Punishment for carelessness with guns in those days was swift and sure: spankings with willow switches, belts, straps, and huge flat boards. We learned at an early age to treat guns with respect and care.

Yep, that's my memory of guns, and what they were for. They were for subsistence, not for mass murder.

Is there a lesson in the above revelation? About responsibility? About the meaning of and reasons for certain seemingly harsh punishments?

Probably not.

But that's the way it used to be.

That's the way  it was.

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While walking West on the sidewalk that runs along Speedway Boulevard at just before noon yesterday (Sunday) I noticed that some of the Catalina Mountain peaks had accumulated a portion of the snow that had fallen during the winter storm that swept over Tucson Friday night and and most of Saturday. Down here in the lower elevation we enjoyed a deluge of rain instead of mountain snow. Which is fine. We need the water.

Snow On The Mountain Peaks

December 16, 2012

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WORD FOR TODAY

subsistence
noun
-  The action or fact of maintaining or supporting oneself at a minimum level.
-  The means of doing this.
Synonyms
existence - living - livelihood - being - life

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Ernie Hudson

 Born Dec 17, 1945
Age:   66 years old

Ernest Lee "Ernie" Hudson is an American actor known for his roles as Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters film series, Sergeant Albrecht in The Crow, and Warden Leo Glynn on HBO's Oz. Recently, Hudson has had a recurring role as Jay's friend Miles on the American comedy TV series Modern Family.

George Lindsey

Born Dec. 17, 1928
Died:  May 6, 2012

George Smith Lindsey was an American character actor, best known for his role as "Goober Pyle" on The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D. and his subsequent tenure on Hee-Haw.

Chris Matthews

Born Dec 17, 1945
Age:   66 years old

Christopher John "Chris" Matthews is an American news anchor and liberal political commentator known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC. On weekends he hosts the syndicated NBC News–produced panel discussion program The Chris Matthews Show. Matthews makes frequent appearances on many other NBC and MSNBC programs. On March 22, 2009, Matthews renewed the contract for Hardball with Chris Matthews through 2012.

Bill Pullman

Born Dec 17, 1953
Age:   58 years old

William James "Bill" Pullman is an American film, television, and stage actor. Pullman made his film debut in the supporting role of Earl Mott in the 1986 film Ruthless People. He has since gone on to star in other films, including Spaceballs, Independence Day, Lost Highway, Casper, and While You Were Sleeping.


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Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.
--Aldous Huxley

More On Writers And Writing . . .

The month of March kinda sneaked up on me... and sank its relentless fangs of unstoppably passing time into my unsuspecting consciousness. I'd forgotten that February has fewer days than the other months. Just one of the penalties of living more than seventy years, I reckon.

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Mike Barker asked his writers group the question: "What is horror?"

That three word question has troubled me ever since it first impinged upon my attention (three hours ago) and I still have no quick and clever answer for it.

My problem in finding a suitable answer might be because I am looking too deeply into the mind of the average reader at this specific point in time. And yes, I know that I have earlier expressed my disgust with the term 'at this point in time' -- but that trite and wordy expression seems particularly appropriate in this circumstance. What it is that constitutes horror is changeable with each present-day era, this being dependent on the peer-to-peer transference of modern-day morality, and what is considered acceptable or normal behavior. Then, of course, horror may be seen as the villainous imposing of unacceptable or abnormal behavior on the innocent, unsuspecting, and identifiable, likable characters.

Or is that (the above paragraph) merely a bunch of blathering babble? I will have to give this some more thought.

Although Mike seems to think that Sherrilyn Kenyon could have the answer, I don't agree. Her novels are popular fantasy, not horror. They are the books I could never make myself read, being akin to romance novels.

But, of course, I could be wrong... again.

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The overlooked typo is the bane of even careful writers and their editors. How many instances have I found of the repeated word -- (... on the the dark, silent beach...) -- and the grammatically incorrect word choice -- (...there feral and ferocious red-rimmed eyes..." instead of "...their eyes...") -- how many? Too many. And these careless slips have a way of defeating the author's purpose, be it instilling fear, horror, or whatever other emotion was intended. A detail-oriented copy editor can be a real lifesaver.

Here is an actual typo that I caught just today: "I totally confused my cow orker yesterday..." Huh? my cow orker? If this typo had been within a manuscript's final draft and had found its way into a published story... well, you know what I'm saying. Right?

One already professionally edited website I was asked to examine actually still contained nineteen (19) errors... one of them being a repeated word (...the the...) and another being (well... I don't remember what it was but it was a funny error.)

To a limited degree, I can offer a valuable service to certain selected writers. You can read about my unusual FREE service HERE,


Again, the link is: http://www.genechambers.com/edit.htm

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My newest project, compiling some of my earlier unpublished manuscripts and interspersing them with selected sketches of my life in the middle and latter parts of the twentieth century, is progressing... but slowly. Why? Laziness, of course. I'd rather read than write.

But I intend to get busy and finish it up. Soon.

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Rensselaer Adventures recently featured a piece about the 2011 accumulation of snow. Below is a photo I am including here with permission from the photographer -- a picture that struck me as particularly striking. Probably because I was a resident of Rensselaer for the first forty years of my life, and I recognize the creek pictured, as well as recalling from memory both the beauty and the horror of those Hoosier winters.

Photo reproduced here with permission of Robert Schenk

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