Saying It Better Than I Ever Could: Malcolm Gladwell on Writing

One of the things I have wanted to do with this blog is to highlight particular moments of clarity by writers, filmakers, artists, scientists, or really anybody who captures an idea/notion/belief that I've had/have, but could never express nearly that well. Today, I turn my attention to Malcolm Gladwell.

Today, I have demonstrated my incredible capacity for procrastination. In order to avoid my work, I have instead done the following: washed the dishes, knee stretches/exercises (which is usually something I procrastinate from and haven't done in months even if I am supposed to do them weekly if not more often), general web surfing, and hey, looky here, a blog post. Any way, in my continuing attempts to avoid "coding" (actually Mizar for those in the know), I picked up a book of essays by Malcolm Gladwell that, let's go with a somewhat obscure reference and call her Lula Mae (at least for now), lent to me. So far, I have only read the preface. In it, Mr. Gladwell drops the following piece of brilliance on us:

"The trick to finding ideas is to convince yourself that everyone and everything has a story to tell. I say trick but what I really mean is challenge, because it's a very hard thing to do. Our instinct as humans, after all, is to assume that most things are not interesting... We filter and rank and judge. We have to. There's just so much out there. But if you want to be a writer, you have to fight that instinct every day. Shampoo doesn't seem interesting? Well, dammit, it must be, and if it isn't, I have to believe that it will ultimately lead me to something that is."

--- Malcolm Gladwell. "What the Dog Saw and other Adventures." Little Brown and Company. 2009.

Gladwell made this remark in a discussion about where his ideas come from. I am obviously not a professional writer, but this is certainly something that I have found has plagued me when trying to come up with ideas for pieces for this blog. When it comes down to it, I don't believe that I am a particularly interesting person. And I don't necessarily mean that in a negative way (well ... maybe slightly). But simply put, I am not James Bond, nor a swash-buckling pirate, nor a jet-setting world-famous explorer. However, this does not mean I cannot write interesting things. Not that I do (or at least, that is up to you), but it is theoretically possible.

I have always aspired to be a better storyteller than I am. Since I am not a professional writer, the opportunities I have to research the lives of others and write about them is limited. But my ability to write about my own experiences is not. The challenge is to take my relatively straightforward existence, and make it interesting to my audience. Discussing the work that I do in a way that is both accessible, and, almost more importantly, exciting to those without the same background as me, is another challenge.

Sometimes I have succeeded in spite of this challenge, but more often I have not. Certainly practice helps in finding ways to make the seemingly unexciting into something interesting. Luckily, I have no shortage of things to procrastinate from.

Back on the Horse or The Continuing Misadventures of Rick

I've kind of neglected this space for awhile. But with this post, I am back with a vengeance! By which I actually mean I will probably continue to write things poorly, sporadically, and not very often.

It's been a very busy week, and in amidst all of my work, I forgot to pay my rent. This occurred for a few reasons. First of all, my memory is comparable to that of an ant. Secondly, February is a short month. Thirdly ... well, I don't have any more. And that second one is weak. When it comes right down to it, I'm just an idiot.

I eventually did remember, but it was not because of any inspired moment of responsibility. No, it was because I needed a 10 minute break from work, and so I picked up the ole guitar. I started to play a few tunes, and somehow picked out "Don't Worry, Be Happy" as a nice place to start. And when I got to the line that said "The landlord say the rent is late," I froze in recognition of my own stupidity.

All I know is that without Bobby McFerrin, my late fee probably would have been even higher than $25 I had to fork over today as I wondered exactly how it was that I function in normal society.