I've been reading a lot of Raymond Carver and thinking about drinking gin. I've also been trying to write and make sense of the thing I do called blogging. I've also spent a lot of time reading about writing and different methods writers use to write, which allows me to avoid actually writing.
A while back, I read this anecdote from Johnny Cash's autobiography. I copied the passage down because it meant something to me at the time. In the passage he shares this incident about driving in the California desert with Roger Miller:
Out in the middle of the desert he told me to pull over, then jumped out, and ran off behind a Joshua tree with a pad and pencil. When he came back he had a fully written song.That's all I wrote, so now I will finish the post.
It was "Dang Me." He'd hidden behind that tree to write it because he knew it was just too hot a song to be created with me or anyone else anywhere near him. He had to bring it into the world all by himself, like an Apache woman giving birth. When he came back and sang it to me off the pad, I saw his point.
I guess, I was intrigued with what this anecdote says about writing. It's a solitary process and sometimes you have to distance yourself from everyone and everything to for the wheels to start turning. I guess, generally this is true. During the past few weeks I've been experimenting with just writing whenever I can because it's not always possible to set aside chunks of time to write. I've taken to scribbling down words or phrases that tickle my fancy.
Did Navajo women really give birth alone? Or is Johnny Cash is full of shit? Saying Johnny Cash is full of shit seems blasphemous in my world.
be good and do good,
muddywaters
