Just Write, Screw Editing

Just write. Put the pen to the paper or put the fingertips on the keyboard. Shit ain’t gonna write itself. Edit later, Write. Get it out. Let it flow.

So here goes. I hope you like it. I care what you think. I value your opinion. It matters to me. You offer insight and constructive criticism almost all the time. I know you take the time to read my stuff thoroughly and offer up honest yet helpful tips.

I can’t think of anything to write. Should I do comedy or philosophy? Should I do both? But I’m not exactly Woody Allen here now am I. I’m not married to my daughter. See, see what I did there? That was pretty funny don’t you think? Let us analyze: I set you up talking about writing and referenced the writing of Woody Allen and how I am NOT like him but then…I turned the table and said that I am not like him insofar as I did not marry my daughter. Classic humor in the classic style. Heck, I am into classic, it’s my new thing.

Aside: I love Woody Allen. I watched Annie Hall the other night for the first time in a number of years and is it ever funny. Interestingly, I noticed some, let us call them, directing “errors” if you will. If one considers the uncut (master shot in the biz, not to be confused with a different biz's money shot) shot of Woody and Tony Robbins walking and talking in New York about anti-Semitism with liners like “Jew eat yet? Not did you eat,” the shot has no errors because no other actors interact. But, and this is a huge bedonkadonk “but,” in the also uncut scene after the on-street breakup between Woody and Diane, he walks along the street and asks several characters “What Happened?” Of course the “We use a large vibrating egg” liner goes off unhitched. But in the conversation with the superficial couple, one can see the male actor start to pull away early and this impacts the timing of the interaction with the elderly woman (“love fades”) and then the timing with the horse. Does it ruin the scene? Of course not. Does it make the scene even more endearing? No again, the dialogue is what makes it endearing and timeless. And isn’t this the genius of Woody Allen?

Aside: listening to a pod cast of Tavis Smiley with Anthony Greenwald on prejudice and bias. Aside in aside: I am committing one of my own sins. Aside in an aside in an aside: I consider multitasking to be a myth. You can’t do two things at once, unless of course you are Mr. Guitar Chet Atkins. But he’s dead so there’s that. Now what this means for us is that we can’t do two things at once. You have to pick one. OK, a little bit of equivocation here but like Mae West said “I could tell the truth but it’s so boring.” What I mean is that you can’t do two things at once and do them well, you must pick one. I’m not talking about walking and chewing gum because I happen to know for a fact that you won the district championship in the Walking and Chewing gum Classic back in 06. I’m talking about important stuff like being a musician or being a writer or actor or theologian or high priced call girl. You can’t dabble in two things and expect greatness and here I am trying to be the best blogger since Red Buttons and I’m listening to a podcast, and committing 2 sins at once (one can multitask sins because they aren’t important by the way): not “hearing” the podcast (White men can’t Jump reference to the Jimi Hendrix conversation) and not “committing” to the writing of the blog with 100% of my focus. Shitballs, I thought I was better than this. Now you could ask, “Funner, why don’t you just do one then and not be a dick?” And I might retort and tell you to mind your own business and that when I want your opinion, I will give it to you.”

Anhedonia

Let’s say you grew up poor. How poor? Let’s say 8 people in a 2 bedroom house poor; 1 bathroom by the way. Let’s say you know what it is like to drink powdered milk. Let’s say you know what it is like to have the gas turned off and be cold in the winter. Let’s say you know the humiliation of having the lunch tickets at school because you are poor. Let’s say you know the tension that surrounds Christmas and back-to-school clothes buying because you are poor. Let’s say that your high school was not in the highest tax bracket in your county and that said high school led the county in teen pregnancy rate. Let’s say that despite all this you become a first generation, economically disadvantaged student…and you graduate. Let us go further and say that you earn a scholarship to a master’s program and earn your master’s degree. Let us say you took out student loans because, of course, you were poor.

Fast forward to 2012 and Mitt Romney says that 47% of people in the U.S. won’t take responsibility for their lives. Are you now angry at Mr. Romney? Do you look at your retirement numbers and think that you didn’t take responsibility for your life? Do you hold down a job, pay taxes, have a wife and child, and think that you have not taken responsibility for your life because you are not wealthy? Do you, despite the urge to resist, despite your knowledge of self-fulfilling prophecy, THINK THAT YOU DESERVE IT? Do you? Has the message been said too many times to be false? Have you worn down, eroded your once held belief that you could escape, if not the financial poverty, at least the poverty of the mind, the belief that you are worthy and have dignity, despite your financial situation?

Do you believe them? Do you believe that the playing field is level? Do you believe that the past has no bearing? That not having is no reason for not getting? Do you now agree with them that circumstance is not a factor? Isn’t just the case that, as George Will postulates, that the cream rises to the top and you have not risen because you are not the cream? Are you now a social Darwinist and believe that, the less worthy are the poor, those that will not pass on their genes due to inferior constitution? Maybe you agree. Maybe you didn’t use to, while in undergrad, holding court in the classroom…or in grad school when your advisor mentioned an Ivy League school for your PhD.

Are you a Christian? Do you believe that all persons have dignity? That’s interesting; George Will doesn’t think that dignity rises to the top, the cream, the better people, the UN-POOR rise to the top. And why shouldn’t they? Why shouldn’t the rich have more dignity? Why shouldn’t the rich have more importance? Why?

Have you changed? Have you selected the history that supports your argument? Have you become, in Cornel West’s words, myopic? But don’t you wonder? Don’t you wonder how Wall Street can have lobbyists that spend 1 million dollars a day? Don’t you wonder how that isn’t fascism? Don’t you think that taking a race of people and enslaving them and cutting off their access (or right to) knowledge is going to impact their economic future? Of course you don’t wonder about those things and neither does Mitt Romney.

Is it ultimately about Mitt Romney? Of course it’s not. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I have anhedonia, just like in Franzen’s The Corrections. Maybe I’m cynical because life has beaten me down a bit. But maybe in spite or better yet, because of these things, I can face the truth. The shitty, unpleasant, can’t change without facing, set-you-free-but-fuck-you-up-at-the-same-time-truth. Hell, maybe it’s you.