"Write now is good."

Could universal health care eliminate poverty?

Over the past week, I've received quite an education on the connection between poverty and lack of health insurance. I was co-host of a “news hunt” at NewsTrust, a vibrant media literacy project online. The NT community looked for the best journalism on health care, and read and reviewed a wide range of health care stories. Those that stayed with me most explained how the lives of the working poor have been destroyed when they lose health insurance.

Solving poverty is a complex issue, but one within our control if we act widely and directly on it. One solution to poverty in the United States is to provide universal health coverage. The working poor, who amount to roughly 80% of the 45 million uninsured in the U.S., will benefit most from this.

During the news hunt, I read and reviewed 36 health care stories (including a podcast and a documentary) from many sources. Based on what I've read, I know now that there is a consistent, tragic pattern that occurs when the working poor lose health insurance. The basic steps are:

1. working adult gets sick and loses job
2. after losing job, they lose their health insurance
3. they can no longer afford medications, so they get sicker
4. since they have no insurance, they receive either no care at all or substandard health care which they have to pay for themselves
5. the bills pile up
6. still sick, they cannot work, so they lose their home and belongings because any money they have goes to basic subsistence and paying medical bills
7. very few rebound, and many die

Providing health insurance, available no matter their employment status, would solve this horrible situation. It would help the working poor in multiple ways. It would give them access to any needed medical care for themselves and their dependents. They would stay healthy and be able to look for and get additional work. If sick workers could no longer work, they would still get care, which is the right and compassionate thing to provide.

When people are healthy, they can still contribute meaningfully to their communities; when many in one community are unemployed and sick, their community suffers along with them. With health insurance, adults can take care of the children who depend on them; without it, their children may lose, either temporarily or permanently, their mother's or father's care.

During this economic downturn, prospects for the working poor will absolutely become more dire. Adding guaranteed, universal health insurance to the poverty equation would directly improve the quality of their lives. To read some of the top rated stories from NewsTrust's health care news hunt and decide on this issue for yourself, click here.

THANK YOU to those who left comments here that they too would join Blog Action Day:

- Crafty Green Poet writes on "Poverty and the Environment".
- Lily Hydrangea penned "Blogging for Poverty".
- Nipun at 50 Word Fiction has an "uber short" take on the theme.
- Rachel's post is titled "My skin or my soul" over at The Slow-Cooked Sentence.

Books and their places

My favorite books of childhood, "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis and any Nancy Drew mystery, left such an indelible impression on me, that I can remember exactly where I was when I read most of them. That's why the idea behind "Field-Tested Books," a new book by Coudal Partners featuring more than 50 authors and their essays, resonates so strongly with me. From the introduction by Jim Coudal:

We had this notion that somehow through experimentation we could identify how our perception of a book is affected by the place where we read it. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe it’s possible to determine how a book colors the way we feel about the place where we experience it.

We’ve been trying for over six years now, and frankly, we’re not getting any closer to a definitive answer. We know, without a doubt, that book and place do affect each other, and that they are bound as a single experience in our memories...

My memories quickly surfaced as I thought of books I've read, how old I was, where I was. Certain books— their stories, themes and characters—became so important to me at different points in my life. I felt inspired to write an essay based on the "Field-Tested Books" idea. Then I read this:

We’re also interested in more stories about a “certain book read in a certain place.” Email us here with 300-500 words about a book you read somewhere. We’ll select some for publication in our growing collection and send those authors a copy of The Field-Tested Books Book and some other stuff too...

This is the third volume of "Field-Tested Books," and there will be another one in the near futures (which looks like 2-3 years based on these editions' timeframe).

Which books do you associate strongly with a place? If you'd like a writing assignment, take on Jim Coudal's offer and write a 300-500 word piece about one. If you write one and post it to your blog, come back and leave a link, and I'll feature all in an upcoming post.

Yes, I'll be writing one, too. Now if I can just narrow down my book choice.

You may purchase "FTB" here. (Found via Swissmiss)

UPDATE: Rachel Levy at The Slow-Cooked Sentence has posted her essay about Jane Eyre. Definitely click over for a read!

Can you help this photo find its home?

Over at JournaMarketing, David Brazeal has posted about a mysterious photo he found:

This photo ended up near my home this weekend, after tornadoes hit southwest Missouri and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas. I have no idea where it came from, but it traveled at least 70 miles, I think. It's just one piece of the debris that was scattered across the area...

Area residents have been gathering these lost photos, scanning them, and posting them on Web sites. If people who have lost personal possessions during the storms do search for their photos online, imagine how happy they would be to find these precious, irreplaceable items.

The News-Leader of Springfield, Missouri has an online photo gallery with more than 100 photos found in tornado debris. If you live in or are from the area, take a quick look to see if you recognize any of these people.

This is the first instance I've seen of social networks (I found out about this via a message David sent through Twitter), blogs and Web sites being used to reconnect storm victims with their photos. These simple online tools, already in place, can provide an inexpensive, viral way for many people to assist those affected by natural disasters.

If this photo and its owners are reunited, I'll post an update.

One beautiful sentence

Photo: Happy door by Jeff Bauche._.·´¯)

A few bloggers I know are currently struggling with various illnesses. Having closely followed what author (and good blog friend) Patry Francis is going through with her own health battle, her current post really moved me, and this sentence in particular stood out. From "Unreasonable Happiness: The Existential Question of the Week":

"...Maybe I'd left the shallow, mundane world I usually occupy and fallen through a trap door to the place where being in love is quite simply our natural state."

Patry's existential question is "When was the last time you felt incredibly happy for no particular reason?" My not-so-existential question is "Have you recently found one beautifully written sentence which moves you?"

Wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate it.

Now, THIS is a big turnoff!

Photo: Swamp TV. by James Good

A big TV turnoff, that is.

April 21-27, 2008 is TV Turnoff Week. Starting tomorrow, millions of TV gazers worldwide will dare to hide their remotes and cut the cord for seven days. Past reported results are astounding. Many have experienced:

- increased creativity
- more time with family and friends
- better quality sleep ... and more of it
- additional time spent enjoying the outdoors, often walking
- a greater sense of calm and relaxation
- the ability to sit, focus and read a book—something many had not done in years

Need some additional reasons to turn off your TV? Go to TurnOffYourTV.com.

TV Turnoff Week is every week for me. I don't watch TV at all (unless it's a DVD, something on YouTube, or something on at a friend's—I'm not anti-TV). In these times, it's difficult to unplug entirely, and there is some quality stuff worth seeing.

However, there is no way I would have time to blog or be involved in my other creative pursuits if I filled up my minuscule free time with TV watching.

What are your top priorities in your life? Is TV one of them?

Want to write a novel? Turn off your TV and use that time for writing instead. You may have a first-draft completed before you know it.

To be real

Photo: Acme Oyster House Waitress by Candlemaker

A good friend told me this story. He heard it on NPR, and now I can't remember on which show and neither can he. Here is my retelling. (If anyone knows who originally told this, send the URL and I'll gladly link to it):

A family sits down in a restaurant and starts to look at their menus. After a few minutes, the waitress comes over and first takes the parents' orders. She then turns to the little boy.

"And what would you like?" she says.

"A hot dog," he says.

The father looks at the son and then says to the waitress, "He'll have the roast chicken."

The waitress then turns back to the little boy. "And what would you like with your hot dog?"

"French fries," he says, quietly, looking sheepishly at his father.

The father states, "No, he'll have the rice and broccoli."

The waitress, writing nothing down, then turns back to the boy. "And what would you like to drink?"

"Chocolate milk," the boy says.

"He'll have the plain milk," says the father, looking directly at the waitress.

"Alright. That'll be a hot dog, french fries, and chocolate milk for the little mister," the waitress repeats back. She turns and walks towards the kitchen.

The boys turns to his mother and whispers, "She knows I'm real."

When you write, think of whom you're writing for; picture your audience, and stay on course for them. Listen to people who give you feedback on your writing; they are giving you something of value, even if you may not agree with it, so be sure to take in what they are saying. Think of the people in your daily life, those who often become invisible.

These people are real. See them.

An interview

Photo: the interview by Stitch

When your story's characters start to speak to you, how do you respond?

Do you keep on typing anyway, muttering, "Not now! Not now! I'm in the middle of an important scene!" Do you get up and call a friend on the phone? Do you get up and turn on the TV?

When a main character in a story first began to tell me about her life, I was shocked. I didn't believe what was happening to me. It's not that I heard a voice in my ear or a whisper over my shoulder. I did not feel her actual presence with me in the room. But my fingers began to fly with an intense focus that I hadn't experienced before, and her story poured out of me through the ends of my hands. I felt electricity rush through my shoulders and neck as I typed madly to keep up with what seemed to come from the air around me, stopping briefly in my brain, and rushing quickly out to be recorded via keyboard.

I do believe in magic, and this felt magical. I'm a spiritual person, and this felt spiritual. I live thinking that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, somehow, and I felt like a gift given from someplace alien and kind was unwrapping itself before me.

And at first, I tried to ignore it. To have a character speak so strongly as I wrote felt overwhelming. It felt extremely overwhelming because I didn't have to think my story anymore at that point. I didn't have to force it or worry over it. And I was very used to thinking about it, and forcing an awkward scene, and worrying that it didn't work. I wasn't used to writing in flow.

This character helped me experience "flow," which feels almost like a rushing river of nothingness. It is fast moving yet surprisingly empty, except for all the words — the words that appear as mysterious phrases, or that describe strong flashes of images, or that can be a simple narrative tale or song or poem that is supposed to somehow fit into the story. It often doesn't make sense, but its presence cannot be denied. It has to be accepted in the moment. Some may call it inspiration, or some think that muses or creative faeries set up a tent and start telling their campfire stories under endless stars until the sun rises. I call it "being in flow." For me, it happens occasionally, and I've learned to ride with this flow whenever I'm treated to a visit.

This brings me to my primary point. When a character begins to speak to you, stop what you are doing and listen. (If you're driving a car, pull over to the side of the road. If you're operating heavy machinery, safely empty your load and turn off the motor. If you're in a boring meeting, slip out quietly for a moment. Stop safely — you get my drift.)

After you've safely stopped, listen and get ready to take notes. You can even ask your character questions, but only if you're really going to listen — and hear — the answers.

Much like a real interview with a living, breathing person — but who's not to say that your characters don't live and breath? — a successful one is about listening. If you love telling stories or writing stories or creating music or making art, then you definitely enjoy the expressing part. I recommend enjoying equally, if not more, the taking-it-all-in part. Drop any agendas you have, let all preconceived notions go, and, with complete, rapt attention, listen.

After I first listened to my character, and I listened well, she returned every time I sat down and continued the tale. A main narrative of this novel draft began to appear consistently, and other characters chimed in. It's as if she told her friends, "Hey! Go to her! She'll actually listen to you." And I did. I listened to all of them. At the end of the novel, it looked completely unlike what I thought it should be. I didn't recognize about 80% of my original plan or outline in it. But it felt so strongly "right" and real. This was it. 

At the final wrap-up of this storytelling, when I punctuated that last sentence, ending this draft, my character had a question for me. "Did you get all that?" she asked with a laugh, acknowledging that I had to let a lot go within myself to keep up with her light-speed pace.

"Oh, yes," I replied, nodding my head. "Thank you for this." I closed my eyes and exhaled.

What is really behind Door #3?

Photo: Door. by BrittneyBush

I love social media. I blog in a variety of places, I read and comment on many other's blogs, I check Twitter at least once (alright, twice) a day. I think social media has revolutionized the online experience. It has made information more accessible to more people worldwide. It has given many a voice — and an audience — who would not have one without its tools. More great things will definitely be created in this sphere.

New social media outlets continually crop up in Blogville. All of them offer to take online interpersonal networking and hanging out to ecstatically satisfactory levels. These networks make MySpace, Facebook and Digg look like way-ancient old timers. Soon these new kids will be eclipsed by something else, however. In the Wild Wild Web, it's only a matter of (extremely short) time before a site or a technology shows its age. Someone always shouts, "Hey! What's next?" It's simply tech evolution, and it will not stop.

But I am growing skeptical about what these new sites offer. If I join more of them, what do I get? How will they improve my online life? And what will they do to my life off-line?

Other Blogville residents have been thinking about these issues. I've been emailing with Drew McLellan about all these digital distractions and keeping up with them. He has asked his blog readers if all this stuff is really about work or just play. Greg Verdino has asked his readership, as we spend our precious time on soc nets, if it's coming down to Tweet or change the world. What are we really spending our time on? And yes, all joking aside in David Armano's spot-on list, some of us do really need a "Twittervention".

Is there a social media backlash growing? Many participated in the first "International Delete Your MySpace Account Day" in January. After a stint of bad PR, Facebook has finally agreed to let users completely delete their accounts and erase all their personal information. While these actions represent the more vocal folk's choices, how many of us have joined a social network just to let our accounts rot from neglect? Perhaps this is some subconscious, silent protest on our parts.

Still, why do many of us feel compelled to join more soc nets? With more to join appearing almost weekly, what should we do?

This recent New York Times article, "The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors", has some answers. Dr. Dan Ariely of M.I.T. has written a new book called Predictably Irrational. In it, he claims that people take on too many projects and say "yes" to so many things not to keep their options open, but for another reason entirely. In a computer simulation Ariely created, subjects continually clicked on doors to keep them open — even though they lost points for doing so. Here's why:

Apparently they did not care so much about maintaining flexibility in the future. What really motivated them was the desire to avoid the immediate pain of watching a door close. [my emphasis]

“Closing a door on an option is experienced as a loss, and people are willing to pay a price to avoid the emotion of loss,” Dr. Ariely says. In the experiment, the price was easy to measure in lost cash. In life, the costs are less obvious — wasted time, missed opportunities. If you are afraid to drop any project at the office, you pay for it at home.

“We may work more hours at our jobs,” Dr. Ariely writes in his book, “without realizing that the childhood of our sons and daughters is slipping away. Sometimes these doors close too slowly for us to see them vanishing.”

The complete article is fascinating. You can even play Dr. Ariely's "closing doors" game here. See how you react. 

After reading my fellow bloggers' posts and this timely article, I feel energized to do what my instincts were telling me. My time is precious, and I will not join any additional social networks at this point. I don't think I am losing anything; I've got some vital home and work projects that need my primary attention. Doing so will improve the quality of my life, without question.

Bonus link: Read Kathy Sierra's post "Is Twitter TOO Good?" for more insight into what we digerati face in balancing online and "real world" demands.

Is it time for a "brain dump"?

Photo: Brain coral by medialoog

Do you have too many thoughts chasing each other around in your head? Want to take an inventory of current ideas, seeing if anything brilliant or creative resides among them? Do you need to focus but feel too distracted and scatterbrained to do so?

Try doing a "brain dump". It's refreshing, relaxing and invigorating. Here's how:

1. Set aside one hour. (Not ten minutes, not thirty minutes — a complete sixty minutes!) Get an egg timer, kitchen timer or other alarm and set it so you don't have to watch the clock.

2. Grab a notebook and pen. Find a comfortable place where you can think and write and draw. Make sure this place is as far away from your computer as you can possibly get. (If you must sit at your computer desk and cannot move your computer, turn it off and place fabric or other covering over it so you cannot see it.)

3. Set your timer.

4. Start writing, stream of consciousness. Try to write as fast as you can, taking everything that pops to mind and writing it in your notebook. Don't question it, just get those thoughts out. Keep going. Don't worry about neatness of handwriting, or if what you're writing makes sense — just keep dumping those thoughts. Keep writing until you feel that your thoughts are running out. This might be two minutes, it might be twenty. When you feel like you're done, then you're done.

5. Take a few deep breaths. Breathe in slowly, breathe out slowly. Close your eyes, and breathe in and out slowly again. Turn to a blank page in your notebook.

6. Stare at the blank page. It's OK if it's scary at first, just make sure you continue to look at it. Then write or draw the first thing that starts to arrive through your pen.

7. Sketch. Doodle. Write. Whatever comes through your pen, poetry or prose or random words, continue to follow it. Play. Relax. Don't evaluate it, don't judge it. Just let it flow out. Definitely take short breaks, get up and stretch, walk around the room, look out the window, or get something to drink during this time. Then quickly come back to the notebook. Stare at another blank page for as long as you need to. If you don't draw or write anything, this is OK, too. Stay with your notebook and pen for the full hour.

8. Stop when the timer or alarm rings. Close your notebook and put your pen down. Close your eyes, breathe in and out slowly again, with your hands on your closed notebook.

9. You've now completed your brain dump. Go about your day or evening. Look back through brain dump pages whenever you want to. What's there? Anything you'd like to build on? Anything brilliant or creative, surprising or interesting?

10. Repeat as often as you want.

If you try this brain dump technique, feel free to leave a comment and let us know how it went for you.

Imperfection frees creativity

Photo: zen garden for a moment by Genista

During my first trip to California a few years ago, I was stunned by its ever-present natural beauty: the Redwood forests, the rugged Pacific coastline, the pre-dusk marine layer rolling over the hills surrounding San Francisco, the Mediterranean-like climate.

At this time, I also discovered the concept of wabi-sabi. Since that moment, my creativity has been liberated from the trap of perfectionism.

At its essence, wabi-sabi is an acceptance that nothing is perfect and all things are in a constant state of flux; in this imperfection and transience is beauty.

In Japanese aesthetic culture, to incorporate wabi-sabi into artistic creations ensures that the work is real, authentic. Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging), bonsai and Zen gardens, pottery, and Haiku poetry illustrate wabi-sabi principles.

The next time you write or draw or dance, keep wabi-sabi in mind. Let imperfections and "mistakes" come through. Let your human side shine. Relax, and be real. See what you get.