Open Range – Revisited

Intro:  I wrote this story back in 1993, describing some of my time on the road between 1978 and 1980.  I had packed up and bugged out after a little run-in with the law.

Something sparked the memory, and I dug out a copy of the publication it appeared in at the time – “Out Your Backdoor.”

I found it fun to look back at my writing style then.  Not that much different from today.

I was trying to break into freelance writing and looking for small publications that would pick up an article – payment was usually a couple copies of the newsletter, magazine, or journal, or whatever print media it might have been.

With a few minor edits, here it be . . .

*****

A Little “Tude” Please

Well, as language continues to evolve, or devolve, there’s nothing “cooler” than shortening words for effect. 😊  It also takes less energy and effort.  I mean, why bother with all those syllables and pronunciation, right?

There’s also a connotation that sticks with these phrases.  These monotone soundbites.

Today’s example is “tude.”  The short version of “attitude.”  And it’s usually with the negative connotation.  “So, what’s with all the tude man?”  “Too early in the day for that kind of tude.”

I’m sure you’ve heard it before.

Rotation

A number of things were swirling in my head as I woke from my slumbers.

For one, Kirk Douglas died yesterday.  And as I read off the list of his many accomplishments and movies I was reminded of the film “Lonely are the Brave.”  Now I saw this film a long time ago, loved it, and when I watched it oh so many years ago, I had no idea of the connection with Edward Abbey, whose work I’ve also come to thoroughly enjoy.

It’s strange how things can circle around in our lives.

Mile Marker 1000

Well I hit one of those milestones today.  I now have 1000 followers!  And while the stats and numbers aren’t overly important, I do appreciate everyone who visits and pauses to read or comment.

I really enjoy being part of the WordPress community.

I’ve found the people here to be positive, intelligent, and ready to engage in an exchange of ideas that doesn’t match the other social media platforms – in short, people are civil here.  People are artists here.  People are wordsmiths here.  People are poets here.  People share their stories here.

And I can’t get enough of good stories to read.

Lazy or Brilliant ?

My last post was a bit short.  And it really only listed out some research findings.  Although it was interesting research about the power of positive relationships.  And it did include some fun terms like “micro-aggressions,” “micro-experiences,” and “positive alacrity.”

I had to look up that last word “alacrity,” and it means “promptness in response, cheerful readiness.”

One could say that I didn’t put a lot creative effort into that post, or mockingly, and fairly, say that “I phoned it in.”

But sometimes shorter and simpler is better.  The acronym I used for this was “KISS.”  I used it as “keep it short and simple.”  In law school, it stood for “keep it simple stupid.” That’s kind of interesting because one might think that highly educated folks, like lawyers, might not mind long and detailed analyses.  It goes with the territory.

But people are pressed for time.  And maybe that time is not well spent on “legal briefs” or social media?

Fulfilling Relationships = Life

I really do like studies.  Even the ones where we think there are obvious conclusions, as if we didn’t need any documentation.

“Everybody knows that!”

But us humans do like to research.  To authenticate, substantiate, certify, justify, confirm, establish, corroborate, prove, support, validate.  Whatever word you want to use.

We like confirmation and quantification.

So, while I’m not overly surprised, I do find it intriguing that the research bears out that modern medicine has very little to do with our overall health – only about ten to twenty percent at best.  A full eighty percent or more is determined by our relationships.  At least that is what a seventy-five-year study conducted by the Harvard Medical School concluded.

Lighthouses and Kleptoparasitism

I have to tell you,  I’ve not been feeling well.  The living situation is draining me right now so I can’t seem to get very fired up about writing.   So, I thought, why not just add a pic to your photo journal today?  But then I also found a reminder about a word I wanted to write about.

I couldn’t remember why I wanted to write about this word.  I know it wasn’t solely from its basic definition.  I had some application or twist I wanted to highlight.  To play around with.

While staring at the blank screen, I either remembered or thought of a new one. 🙂

Today, you get both, the image and the word.

Requests Anyone?

Blogging is an interesting pastime.

For many of us, it’s a way to hone our skills as writers and explore a whole range of topics.  It can even be a testing ground for materials we wish to write about, like a future book, or for just good old-fashioned storytelling.

For some, it’s even a way to make a living.

Well, yesterday, one of my blogging friends asked me to address a particular topic.  Marriage.  And to do so from the perspective of a father giving advice to a son that is of marriage age or is considering marriage.  He wants to hear the “truth.”

And I can certainly do this, but I fear it may be a bit controversial.

Cross Over – Into the FIRE

Now that I’m retired, I’ve been sharing time, and stories, with my fellow retirees.  I can tell you one thing in common between us.  We are all much happier than we were during the days of our productive employment, even if we were working on one of those lofty, feel-good, society-serving, professional pathways.  Things are much better now.

Simply put, we have a lot less crap to deal with.

And the people we used to work with often stymied our ability to live up to our maximum potential, or to serve our target population to that full potential.

We fought the good-fight, but we didn’t often win.

And now that I’m retired, I keep seeing a billion articles about retirement and what resources you need to retire plastered all over the Internet.  I’m seeing these as a result of targeted ads, I’m sure, but if you stop and read any of these posts the common wisdom you can derive is that neither I, nor any of my retired friends, could possibly afford being out of the workforce.

We all must be starving to death.

To Think, or Not To Think . . .

My social media friend Carol Hopkins posted a quote from Rumi on FB today that reads:

“Raise your words, not your voice.  It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

Now Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, and apparently a pretty smart guy.  I imagine if they had televisions back then he would have cautioned us to turn them off.

Time Fell Back

For being a totally artificial construct, time certainly can beguile us.

Lead us into a false sense of security when there seems to be plenty of “time-to-spare.” Yet place us in a state of sheer panic if time has “escaped us.”  Particularly for workplace deadlines.  Or when we’re dashing across the airport terminal trying to catch that connecting flight.  Or maybe when we’re counting the seconds between the contractions a mother endures during childbirth.

A new life blooms that will soon be “ticking away” the hours.

Life Review

I recently finished reading, “Backwards: Returning to Our Source for Answers,” by Nanci Danison.  It’s a fascinating read as the author describes what people have come to recognize as a near-death experience, but she refers to her adventure into the unknown as a “beyond-death experience.”  Or that she experienced “temporary death,” which implies a longer time out of the corporal self and an ultimate return – with vivid memories of what happened.

Orange Sky

I took part of the day yesterday to be a music day.  I don’t always take time out to listen to music, but I believe it’s one of the most magical creations that flows through people.

And it always takes me away to a place where I’m happy.

It’s similar to writing, in a way, because there are a limited number of musical notes, but an unlimited number of combinations of those notes to produce, well, to produce something magnificent.

Only so many words, but we writers craft them in so many ways.

And from my various pics you know that I’m rather fond of sunsets and sunrises too.  And sometimes, you just happen to be at the right place at the right time to catch a glorious one.

So here’s a combination of a sunset with a song.  Hope you enjoy it.  And while it’s playing, I’ll go back to that creative corner in my mind and ponder the next writing . . .

In Metta

 

 

Photo:  Somewhere in the Southwest that I’m missing today 🙂