Drowning Victim

“The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head.”
― David Foster Wallace

I didn't make it to the target age of 30 or 50 without having such thoughts and neither did David Foster Wallace. I think almost no one does.

Dragon Slaying

The word for this week's single frame story is "easy". You know what's not easy? Maintaining a blog when you have no readers. Everyone's greatest need in the world is to have someone listen. Some people even pay other people just to listen to them. The people who get the money are called therapists. What a great gig! Being paid just to listen.

You know what hell is? Living in a world where you have no voice, where everyone ignores you. If nobody listens to you, you might as well be dead or in exile. You're nothing and no one unless somebody loves you.

That's what drives writers to write: love. It's the hope that someone, somewhere will find something they love in the writer's work. Something that lets the writer know that his life hasn't been a total waste. That all the suffering was somehow worth something and they're not alone in the world.

This blog almost died this week. I lost hope. Fortunately, a couple of new readers breathed some life into it. Hope still lives, albeit precariously, which brings me back to this week's subject:

Slaying dragons is easy. Maintaining a blog is hard. Dragons don't even exist. How difficult can it be be to slay a nonexistent creature? Maintaining a blog requires hope, and we know that exists. Because without hope, we die.

Come With Me

"What's make you think you can change the world, Randall?"

"I don't think I can, not in any significant way. But I'm not trying to change the world, I'm only trying to change your world."

"Really?"

"Yes, now take my hand, follow me and I will show you the way from this world to another."

Black Friday

Thanksgiving is over. That means I can go back to my usual default
state of being unhappy and not particularly thankful. Gratitude is
overrated anyway.

Your World; Your Imagination

In a dream, I dropped a coin into a wishing well and wished for the
world. A Linden god appeared with a small copy of the earth in his
hands and told me "this is your world." He tossed it to me, saying "if
it's a dull place, blame your imagination." 

Another word that goes with humility is gratitude and I must confess. I have been sorely lacking in gratitude. On this day of thanksgiving, I will be grateful.

There are a lot of things I can't do much about, and a few things that I can. Today I'm going to work on the things I can change, starting with me. It's time to get out of this chair and get some exercise.

Second, I'm going to work on my attitude. No complaining today. I'm going to love the world. If I survive the exercising, I'll let you know later how I did.

Now please excuse me, I have some suffering exercising to do.

Humility

Above is my entry for the Single Frame Stories. The challenge prompt
is "Humility". If you need a lesson in humility, try being unemployed
in this economy and needing a job. The caption for the photo is
"Please let me have this job."