Fate is a Prison

Fate is a prison, Destiny is a place. Fate is a thought process that hypothesizes that you have a set course of action. That while you may want something different, you are doomed to a set finale. Fate is limited. Fate is a Prison.

Think of Destiny as a place on the other side of a map from your location. There are several roads that you can take to get there. You can go slow and steady, or you can move quickly on the most direct path. Fact is that most people never even make it half way through that map. The trick with Destiny is that most people don’t know what their Destiny is. Know this: You are destined for something. You are destined for something great that only you, with your special talents and specific chemistry can achieve. Destiny is a place.
Get driving!

Creative Writer Hussie

I came to a bit of a revelation the other day. As a writer, I am profoundly in love with my work. I know it, I love it, and I am excited by it. Then… well then I think a new idea. Without intending it, I think more and more about the new idea. I start to write little notes about it, and I ultimately I look at the project that I was in love with. You know. The one that up until that point I was profoundly in love with a nd excited about, and the spark has vanished.

I am an idea hussy. I feel neither pride, nor shame about it. It is a fact of my make up. I came to the realization when I was thinking of the body of work that I am in various stages with. Currently I am working on about five short stories, three screenplays, and two novels. Yet the ideas do not stop sparking.

In fact I would dare say that if every idea that I ever fell in love with were taken to completion, then Novelists like Stephen king, screenwriters like David koepp or William Goldsmith, and various short fiction writers would be scratching the noggins at the massive amount of works that I have under my belt.

Alas, I move from one idea to another like a literary Lothario. A Don Juan writer who loves many ideas, and leaves them soon for another. Every dream I have becomes an idea for a story in waking up period. Every fear I have compounds itself in my mind into a full fledged novel.

Discipline. It boils down to discipline to complete the works of various ideas into hard work to be read, appreciated, hated, to be alive. In fact there are periods of time that I reject all of my ideas, and want nothing to do with any of them. Such a HUSSY!!! Also proof that I need a kick in my butt every now and then. I appreciate that in order to succeed in anything it requires discipline. Gotta buy me some of that!!!

So I will force myself to work on ONE project. I’ll remind myself that I LOVE this project. Love it madly with all of my heart. I will renew the enthusiasm that it requires to finish an idea to completion. Someone whom I admire deeply gave me a message. She said that everything is energy. I have to focus my energy through my pen and make the energy positive and pure, and my works will be so.
I have focused my energy through my keys into this blog. In this way, I know it to be as it should be.

What to do With the Whacky Borders…

A common argument for people who are pro immigration is that our country was built by immigrants. This is kind of true. I mean there was an America before the immigrants, but I get the argument. This is the melting pot of the world. Never mind that the inhabitants were kicked off of land that they never even claimed was theirs. Let’s agree for the sake of this blog that this country could not be what it is without the poor huddled masses that sought a better life and impacted the directions that America took in her growth.

For the record: there are still poor, huddled masses out there. There are still places in the world that see America as the land of opportunity. It’s all true. America is great and wonderful for all of the reasons that were available a hundred years ago. Until a short time ago I was of an opinion that the borders should not be so strictly enforced. I was of an opinion that it is unfair that I should be so lucky simply because I was born in the United States of America, while others born on the other side of the border are condemned to a life of poverty. I still think this to be true, but a radio personality brought something to my attention during one of his rants.

He asked all of his listeners to think on one question. He asked that we see the problem in extremes. He posed the idea that America completely opens her borders. No checks, no process, no check point. Just open it up. Think about it. I imagine that you come to the same conclusion that I did. Devastating. Unemployment rates would be through the roof. There would be homeless immigrants as thick and as far as can be seen. No. This is not the ideas that I had envisioned about the immigrants of America.

I thought long about this. Whenever my opinions turn I find myself asking for the solution to my new perspective. I believe as a country we are not asking the right questions about immigration. Sadly, the questions are the obvious ones. We just simply do not ask them.

Why? Why the United States of America? What is it that we have here that make people break laws to get in? What is the drive that makes a man climb into a makeshift raft and risk his life to cross a chunk of water? Why isn’t this great Nation doing something to answer this question?

Think about the countries that have the most immigrants sneaking into our country. Mexico to the south. Cuba from the Caribbean. China through Canada and by sea. What is wrong in these countries that have forced people to make desperate moves to our country?

It is easy to say that the questions are not our concern. It is a quick answer to say that the affairs and poverty of other countries should not be The United States of America’s problem to solve. But then that is not what makes our country the greatest on earth, is it?

What I propose is not send money or aid to these impoverished nations. I am reminded of the old adage: Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach the man to fish, and he will never starve.

I propose that we volunteer ourselves to repair these broken nations. We train these nations to develop and grow as America has. Imagine how different the Country might be if Mexico struck the world’s largest oil supply? Or made cars and textiles to export? I am not referring to the cheap labor-made products that flood our stores and supermarkets. I am saying that our neighbors to the south would do better if there was more offered in the way of knowledge. If American Industry concepts were introduced.

It is true that this is a two way street. In order for this plan to work, the governments that we propose to help need to be open to the help. But the biggest question that I have, and I admit to thinking on lately is; have we asked? Have we proposed at all? Or have we offered to give these countries a fish and then find ourselves wondering why they are hungry after only a day?

The glass is half…

The question: Is your glass half full, or half empty? Now, depending on how the question is answered; the person asking the question knows if they are dealing with a positive person, or a negative person. Half empty? Well then you, my friend, are a pessimist. A dark word. Means that you see the bad in everything. It's half full you say? Then you are a positive "can do" type of cat. You take lemons and make lemonade. Ain't nothing gonna breaka your stride…

A thought occured to me today that made me rethink the whole "half glass" conundrum. The reality is that both answers be true. That there glass is BOTH half full, AND half empty. One does not exist without the other. The glass has liquid, this is true, but it also has fifty percent air in there. The correct answer is the glass is just half.

What then am I now that I have had this epiphany? If my official answer is "both", then am I branded both pessimistic, and optimistic? Do the two cancel each other out leaving me in my self realized middle? I like to think of myself as a realist, and so here is where it gets tricky. It is easy to answer the great glass riddle if the percentile is off. Take a glass; drink ¾ of the liquid in it. We are ready to admit a pessimistic viewpoint. Too much air, not enough liquid. Likewise take that same glass and pour into it a half a glass more of whatever liquid your mind can concoct. That same glass is now ¾ full. Well, again no brainer. Positive thinking wins out.

Thing is, very few things in our lives are at a "fifty-fifty" place. I would argue that right now in your life you are in either a MOSTLY full place or a MOSTLY empty place. Never mind the original question. The glass being half is a distraction to a really hard question. Are you mostly full? Why not to the brim? What do you have to do to add more liquid into that damned glass? Why go through life with a mostly empty glass?

Maybe it's because if you accidentally knock down a mostly empty glass you do not have much to lose. I propose that we keep drinking from our glass, and don't refill it. No refill means the glass is just getting emptier and emptier. Our lives are getting the best of us.

So what then? We just fill it?

Let's do so. I plan to take whatever liquid that I feel is appropriate and just over flow my glass. Toast with me!! Let us chink crystal together and let the excessive happiness of our lives over flow. Man I'm thirsty!

You almost have to; or Accidental punch list II

I have reflected on my own musings to a certain degree. Maybe it’s normal to think about what you’ve written. I mean I have heard that 85 percent of writing is re-writing. So I have to add onto one of my previous blogs, because a) I’ve given the topic some more thought, and b) I caught myself saying something and it dawned on me why I noticed my accidental punch list at all.

“You almost have to”. I used the phrase to defend the actions of a good friend of mine. He went to Cabo San Lucas some time back and when he and his wife returned home they regaled me about their adventures on their tropical vacay. The conversation was normal enough. “We went to a massage parlor”, or “we sipped mojitos on the beach”, and then Ron said to me “I bought a Santa Claus costume” followed promptly by; “and the food was good.’

Wait. Back up there. “You bought a Santa Claus costume?” I asked. “In Cabo?”

My friend’s wife rolled her eyes and said that she also thought it was stupid, to which I put up my hand and waving off the comment I said “No, I get it.” My friend’s wife looked confused. Then I looked confused that she didn’t see it. Then her dogs all looked confused because the people looked confused (j/k). I told her that if you come across a Santa Clause costume in October in a tropical paradise, you almost have to buy it.

It’s a simple concept, really. If you are busy walking through life and you come across the absurd, crazy, wacky, exciting, or thrilling you almost have to participate. When my friend told me that she wanted to take me skydiving the day before I graduated High School I almost had to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. When I was in New Mexico and my brother offered me a hand full of coins in his pocket if I would eat one tequila worm that had been dried and salted, well I almost had to (there were a lot of quarters in there and for us apartment dwellers, that means laundry, people!).

Now, when I say “you almost have to” I do not refer to it like “oh poop, I have to do the dishes”, or “I guess I have to pay the bills”. I mean you almost have to eat to survive (if you want to do the whole liquid diet thing, more power to you, ya weirdo). It’s acknowledging that the universe at large has thrown you some spice in your life. You know, the spice of life that everyone claims they want, but don’t have. People have to learn that they almost have to stop and take a picture with the dinosaur in front of the McDonald’s. People should see that they almost have to try local cuisine when they travel. The spice is there if you look to see what the universe is telling you that you almost have to do something. The spice is there when you start looking for it.

I dunno. Call it “Sucking the marrow from the bones of life”. Call it “Carpe Diem”. Call it “Geronimo!” But what ever you do when your path crosses with something that you will remember and cherish for always if you do it, for the love of Pete tell yourself that YOU ALMOST HAVE TO, and then jump!

Accidental Punchlist

I have a punchlist. In fact whether we know it or not we all do. Some people realized that they wanted to be an accountant, a doctor, an engineer, and thus this desire moved onto their punchlist. Call it what you want. Call it your to do list or your to accomplish list. In fact if it never occurred to you to write this list down, then consider the idea well. Simply through writing down what you would like to achieve the idea is tangible. It is real even if only on a piece of paper.

I was pondering this thought the other day as I was working my second job. I reviewed the "check marks" on my list. Yes I've written three screenplays. Yes, I've pitched a television sitcom idea to studio executives. Yes I've jumped out of a perfectly good airplane and parachuted to the ground. Yes, I've been hit by a car as I walked down the street... twice. It was never on a list of goals or dreams. I never said as an apple cheeked youngster "when I grow up, I want to be hit by a car." And yet there it is. For the record: The cars screeched to a stop both times. Both times it was nothing more than a light hit. A bruise one of those times (I've taken worse falling off of a ladder three feet from the ground breaking my ankle).

Point is I realized then that I have another list that is wholly unpredictable. It's not all negative like getting hit by a car, most of my accidental list is quite wonderful. I fell into a part in a play in high school that we toured all over Wales, England with. I have drawn blood from an Alpaca. I rubbed the belly of an Alligator (an adult one). I met my better half.

Maybe the real testament is to notice that somehow both lists have shaped my life. Shown me purpose, Made me laugh, cry, who I am. I hope that you take notice. I hope you deliberately assert yourself for more. I hope you realize that two lists make up your life. Look it up. Mostly I hope that all of us cross off all of our dreams from our list.

“Nature” Has Nothing to do With it.

I can not watch nature documentaries. An affliction that I have had for some time. If there is a documentary that will show cubs frolicking, and animals living care free and happy, well then sign me up. Inevitably, the show documents death. Let’s be clear here. I’m fine with the notion that there is a circle of life, and that carnivores eat herbivores, and so on. I can see that this is nature and this is what it supposed to be.

I am not against hunting for the same reason. I have never been hunting, nor do I plan to soon, but I can keenly see our place in the bigger circle of life, and I am fully aware that to a mountain lion people look fairly tasty. Steak tastes good, Venison tastes good, so on. I just want to make sure that no one thinks that I am on some sort of a vegetarian rant here. Nuff’ said.

No, what bothers me in the shows is that the “nature” nulls a basic human need. Humans have a “nature” to us that make us want to save lives. It’s part of our higher thinking. A gift of conscience and intelligence tells us that life is a cherished thing. Unlike all other animals we have a higher level of thinking that allows us to see what is right and what is wrong.

Why then when I saw March of the Penguins did I witness a small group of baby penguins wander away from the larger group and then freeze to death? Realize if you will, there is a film crew manning the cameras. I will assume that there was someone there with a bit of medical training and I will guarantee that there were penguin experts on hand.

Right. I get you. “It’s nature. They shouldn’t interfere”. I disagree. Is it nature when a man made High Definition camera is mysteriously in the face of these penguins? I forgot that in science class we had that test on “The camera bushes of Antarctica”. There is another part of human nature at work here. The part that tells us that we are not a part of nature. That we are somehow separate from the circle of life and that by documenting this thing called nature the right thing to do is to “not interfere”.

To that, all I can say is: the very fact that you are on location means that you are a part of that very moment in nature. It is true that the penguins would have frozen if a camera was there or not. A tree does make a sound when it falls even if no one is there to hear it. That’s “nature”. But the fact remains that by being at a location filming means that it is the charge of us “higher thinkers” to decide what we will do. The hunter chooses to shoot his prey. The animal experts should intervene when there will be an unnecessary death.

Disagree? Then that is to say that the hunter is interfering with nature, right? Fine. Let me describe another documentary I was unfortunate to have seen. It was about killer whales and the mighty humpback whales. See killer whales are by nature hunters. The documentary rolled on as the killer whales jumped on the back of a baby calf repeatedly until the baby died. The fact there were higher thinking humans there means that something could have been done. The whales could have been scared off. Instead the film crew celebrated that they could capture the moment on film. In the end the killer hales did not eat the endangered species. They sort of nibbled at the calf and moved on. Hunting for the sake of hunting. I equate this to game hunting which I am very much against.

If an endangered species is being documented, and it becomes weak from starvation, isn’t it the responsibility of the only animal that can understand what is happening to it to step in and help? Take our animal counterparts. When a boy fell into an ape pit, didn’t the mother coddle and protect the little boy? That’s basic thinking at work and the choice was still made with ease to help.

We are a part of that. We have our place in nature. We can understand the principles behind protecting the environment, and yet we want to keep rolling. This is because we can choose to do so. Of all of the animals we are the blessed to know we have the choice.