Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Avoiding The Damp Spot

Sometimes I sit by a stream and wonder why it keeps going. Shouldn't it be possible to see the end of it? Shouldn't it be possible to watch the end of the stream go by, with a little floopity noise, and leave dust in its wake? After all, it happened to the mighty Colorado River, which now slouches along and gets dwindly and peters out into a damp spot miles from the ocean.

Which is not a great development. A couple years ago someone stood on a nice bridge across the Sandy River on Mt. Hood and must have noticed that the river was missing, and leaned on the railing to contemplate its goneness. It had just hidden behind a jumble of ice, and when that broke through, the river turned back on, bigger and deeper than ever, and took the whole bridge, and the unfortunate hiker, with it. He was found a couple miles downstream, and not in operating condition.

Similarly, I am led to understand that if you're contemplating the ocean, with its endless tide rolling in, and it suddenly disappears, you should run like bloody hell, uphill.

Well, this is practical advice. But I think about disappearing streams more often than most. Because I have been putting out this seemingly endless stream of crap here on Murrmurrs for over seven years without missing a single Wednesday or Saturday, and I still get in a panic about it. I rarely write to a deadline or anything: I have a stash. But I still understand that if I do not resupply my stash with an average of two a week, that stream is going to turn into a damp spot. I feel great if I write two a week, giddy if I write three, and there's a big shadow over me if I only manage one. Oh no, I think. It's over.

It's not that I worry my muse will go on strike. I don't have a muse. I have a running conversation going in my head in which at least one participant is funny. And I trip across headlines like "Non-Profit Collecting Used Bras To Send To Developing Countries." Then it's just a matter of sitting down and transcribing the conversation. But sometimes that doesn't happen. Sometimes there's nothing in there at all. Just the whisper of tumbling lint, same as Pootie.

But, by some miracle, we've arrived at this point with this post, which is my 800th. And I have to remind myself that just this last spring I sat on the porch with a beer, next to a piece of dog shit, and realized I could write a whole blog post about sitting next to a piece of dog shit. It's officially time to quit worrying about it all. We can worry about quality control, but that's it.

34 comments:

  1. Congrats on your long lived blog. I just found your blog and I am entertained by your thoughts. The few I have read are tinged with some thoughts I have had along the same lines however I can't quite put them out here the way you do. Please do carry on. I am hoping for a flood of words you have to share.

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    1. A flood! I see what you did there! I hope I don't strand any readers two miles downstream. Thanks.

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  2. Okay, first of all, you do have a Muse. That voice in your head that you're talking to? The funny one? That would be him/her.

    Secondly -- how the bloody hell can you possibly think you will run out of stuff???!! It's an election year. And Donald Trump is running for president. Donald Fucking Trump. It almost writes itself.

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    1. The thing about the Donald is there's almost no way to make fun of him that doesn't sound as if it came right off the evening news. He's his own comedy routine. You can't outdo him.

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  3. "..a little floopity noise." I LOVE that, I wish I had your gift with words.

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  4. I do not panic before I post...but I guess you can tell from reading them. (Did you ever read one?) I do not think, no I KNOW, I could not write an entire post about dog poop, but global climate change, drying rivers, give me a charged laptop!

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    1. I'm sure I've read yours when I go through my lineup, but now I can't find it because it's not on your profile page! You should fix that. Climate change is a pretty common theme for me too. And poop.

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    2. http://tabordays.blogspot.com/ Not sure where my profile page is...not been fixing templates for some time!

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  5. Seen on a T-shirt (sadly, not by me): "Support women's lib: make _him_ sleep on the damp spot."

    Keep 'em coming, Murr!

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  6. Keep on keeping on! Think how much we would miss your take on just about anything!
    You are a treasure.

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    1. Well, this week I haven't written a thing yet. Panic time. But just for you I'll come up with some kind of crap.

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  7. A blog post about a beer and dog shit would be more entertaining than some of the ridiculous crap I DO read on blogs. LOL

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    1. I will say it wasn't one of my better-read ones...

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  8. "The whisper of tumbling lint." Such a poetic description of what usually goes through my head. I am so glad you have a way with words.

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    1. Well, I listen to Pootie's head a lot, so I know just what it sounds like.

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  9. I am so grateful that the flood of words and ideas you create is in no danger of dwindling to a damp spot. Not least because the damp spot was always something I avoided and I would camp on yours.

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    1. Some danger...this is Wednesday and I haven't written ONE this week. It's over. SOB

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  10. 800th post - way to go! Yep, I think you can safely assume that your words won't dry up anytime soon. You have a gift and I'm glad you share it here.

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  11. In this time of political wretchedness I selfishly beg for #801 (and beyond) that we please have more. No more words from D. Trump. I can't stand it. But more words from YOU - yes. Carry on.

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  12. 800 posts--AMAZING!! (BTW, one of my recent posts was on pigeon poop.)

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    1. And that is how you can tell you have a quality blog! Congratulations, my friend!

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  13. Someday I want to find the headwaters of the Columbia and follow it all the way out to the ocean. I want to see how it starts, how it strengthens,how it somehow all dumps in the sea. I imagine I still couldn't come up with 800 things to say, the way you have.
    Thank goodness the bear pooped, I saw it, and you commented on it. My life is ever the better for it.

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    1. Aren't the headwaters in a foreign country? I'd wait until after the election. And bear poop? I think you're referring to something REALLY early (I know you're an early adopter) and I'd love for you to spell that out for me, because my life is better for having you in it, too.

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  14. "My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." -- Hedley Lamarr, but could easily have been Murr Brewster... LOVE your blog!Congratulations on 800!!

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  15. Meanwhile I was just sitting here staring at Facebook and reading JZ's latest post about James the Bobcat when it occurred to me that your stream seemed to have gone dry. Realizing it wasn't your actual stream that had disappeared, but more likely that FB was once again messing with me, I hied me to your "Timeline" and found a link to this and others. CRAP. Am now in catching up mode. DAMN YOU, FACEBOOK. And congratulations on your ever flowing stream, and your 800th puddle. Or whatever.

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    1. And now I know the problem may well have been you and the settings you had on your FB Timeline. Tsk!

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    2. I am SO SORRY! What a goofball. I set one thing to go to Dave alone, and didn't know that changed my settings in general.

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  16. Congratulations on your 800th blog. I keep you in my Feedly account and just found this very interesting and amusing blog. I try to put out two blogs about my life, but I do have lots of days when I do the same thing over for the 100th time or or don't get to get pictures of my work and play. I will certainly just wait for another of your blogs to show up in my feed. Many times, they are the best of my blog list. Thanks. And don't worry, if you don't get out two blogs a week. We'll be patient.

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    1. Thanks, Marilyn! The crazy, unbelievable, unanticipated fact is I DO get out two blogs a week. Haven't even come close to missing one. No one's more surprised than I am.

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