MediocreMan

Writing Is Like Breathing · 10 May 2025

Writing is like breathing.

I have said, “Writing is like breathing,” many times in my blog posts. I even said once that I wrote about it. (Creativity on the Internet) But I have looked on my blog and I have never said more than a paragraph about why writing is like breathing. So I figured I ought to fix that.

We all know that we need to breathe to live. Our lungs fill with air, the oxygen in the air gets absorbed into our blood cells, which circulate through our body and give said oxygen to our other cells. Those same blood cells gather up carbon dioxide from said other cells and take it back to our lungs, where it somehow gets put back into gaseous form so our lungs can expel it out into the atmosphere. It is an intricate and beautiful process that can get fouled up by all sorts of complications, usually that we bring about by ourselves. (But that is another story.)

That process is similar to what writing is like for me.

Somehow there are ideas floating around in the universe. I like to think of it as The (Idea) Ether (which I did write about a few years ago). Ideas float around in that ether and all we need to do is capture them. And write them down. Writing them down is the key. And that is how writing is like breathing.

Let me explain.

Ideas float around in the Idea Ether (like the oxygen in the air). I somehow breathe in those ideas and they float around in my head (like the air going into my lungs). I then write down said ideas (like the transfer of oxygen to my cells), then they are mine. However, if I do not write down said ideas, they leak out of my mind and go back into the ether (like carbon dioxide going back to the lungs and then back into the surrounding air). Which is a shame. Unless, of course, I somehow breathe in the idea again.

If I use the ideas, they go out of my mind through a different path. They go out of my fingers onto the computer (or onto the page) and eventually, hopefully, go out into the real universe as a blog post, poem, book, song, video, or some other form of creation (again, like breathing out).

This other path is the preferred path. After all, I hate giving my ideas back to the ether. I hate losing ideas. Which does not happen much anymore. Or maybe it happens just as often as it used to, I just do not notice it as much. Ah well.

At any rate.

I truly look at writing as both a gift and as a necessary part of my life. For even though I could technically survive without writing, it is still like breathing to me. I still need to gather ideas from the ether, get them from my mind to the computer, and transfer them from my computer to the internet or the printed page (or both). It is a process like breathing. At least for me.

And now I am happy. I have finally written about why writing is like breathing.

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The Things You Remember · 3 May 2025

It is funny the things you remember about people. I tend to remember what they said. And often, I write those memories so that I never forget them.

I was doing the crossword puzzle on the day of this writing and there were two words that made me laugh. ROTUND and DAD. (They are in capital letter because I solve crossword puzzles in all caps.) I actually laughed when I wrote the word ROTUND in the puzzle. Then, one of the next answers happened to be DAD. That amused me even more. After all, one of my favorite sayings by one of my favorite people was brought to mind by two answers in the crossword puzzle. So much entertainment in nearly the same instant.

I laughed because my dad used to say, “He’s not fat, he’s rotund.” Or maybe it was, “I’m not fat, I’m rotund.” Not that he was that fat. Certainly not rotund. Perhaps a bit taken by hyperbole. But the words in the puzzle made me laugh at the memory. It brought good thoughts of my dad.

Next, of course, I had to write about the memory (and what brought it about). And I had to add a few thoughts.

I tend to think that our memories of people help to keep them alive in our hearts. Which is why I write them. I want to keep the memories fresh and alive even after the people are not with us. Writing my memories is like having the relationships right there with me whenever I want. I can read my memories when the images and words get fuzzy.

But I actually do not worry about completely losing those memories or ever losing those people. After all, I know that I will see Mom and Dad again. And even if somebody says that I cannot be totally sure, I am 99.99% sure. Yes, I have doubts now and again, but I am almost completely certain (remember the percent) that I will see them again when I go to meet my Maker. Which is why I need not worry that their memories will fade with time. Besides, like I said, I tend to write down memories.

At any rate.

I truly enjoy writing my memories. I love to remember those who have gone before. I love to remember the times that we shared. The meals. The adventures. The jokes. The stories. And, of course, I love to remember the things that they said. The silly or profound words are the ones I remember most. Which is natural. After all, strong emotions tend to make memories stick.

Which is why I remember my dad saying over and over again, “I’m not fat, I’m rotund.” It was always funny. Even though being overweight was not and is not a funny topic. Still, the saying sticks in my mind. So much so that I laugh when I think of the word ROTUND. I laugh because it was one of my dad’s favorite words. And I laugh because it is one of those funny things I remember.

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Do Not Look Now · 26 April 2025

I know why I do not look at my statistics for my websites and social media accounts. They offer no encouragement.

If I was to judge whether I should continue writing based on statistics on my websites and social media accounts, I would have quit long ago. I mean, c’mon. A couple hundred followers on social media after nearly twenty years! (I have more than a couple hundred on Facebook and less than a couple hundred on X. Which by the way, I still have a hard time not calling it Twitter. I mean, c’mon, X!? Anybody else? Probably not. At any rate.)

So much for analytics. (I wonder if that might be a better title for this blog post. So Much for Analytics. Seems kinda catchy. We shall see.)

At any rate.

(By the way, if you have noticed, I use the phrase “At any rate” quite a bit. It is a one sentence paragraph that I stick in there when I abruptly go from one thought to another. It is like my non-transition transition. Think about it. I just write the phrase (it is actually a sentence) and voilà. I can move on to a different thought.)

At any rate.

(See?)

I think that analytics are great. At least in most industries. You can look at your various metrics and use them to decide what to do next. I suppose that I could do that too. I could look to see which of my blog posts get the most views. Then, I could continue to write on those subjects. Seems simple. But I am all over the place on subjects. I write about this, that, and the other. I do not have a single overarching subject. Except me. Except life. I just write about life on this blog. Sometime this. Sometimes that. Sometimes the other. Sometimes without rhyme or reason.

Maybe somebody should come up with a weekly blog prompt. That way bloggers like me who do not have many readers can write about certain subjects certain weeks. They would not need to be experts on anything. They could just write. After all, that is what I do. I am not an expert on anything but me. And life. My life, anyway. I just know what I am and what I do. So I write about whatever comes into my head. (Which might be an interesting subject. Which I am not sure that I have written about it yet. Then again, it might not be so interesting to my readers to read about how I come up with ideas. Especially since it is probably a short subject when it comes right down to it. After all, I just write what comes into my mind. Not difficult to figure that out.)

At any rate.

I forgot where I was. Oh yes. Analytics.

I do not think I will ever use analytics to judge what I write about. After all, I have so little data that there would probably not be much of a pattern to discern anyway. So I will go along blithely ignoring any data that might be out there. Unless of course, I happen to hit upon something that just explodes. But until then, I will just ignore the data (or lack thereof) and continue to write about various topics.

I forgot where I was going with this, but that does not really matter. Because I will not look at the data to see if anybody read this post. After all, my analytics do not offer me any encouragement anyway.

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