The Grip Of Inertia

Lazy is not a word anyone has ever used to describe me. Still, inertia is a frequent if unwelcome companion of mine. How much does inertia intrude on your life?

For me, this close relative of laziness is insidious. I usually know when I'm being lazy but days can go by before I recognize inertia has had me in its grip. It's a toxic recipe - finite time + hard to detect inertia = lost productivity. Even if I'm not (necessarily) procrastinating, somehow not much of note gets accomplished. Then presto - a lot more time has gone by.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." That ancient maxim has given me inspiration many times when I've found myself hobbled by inertia. I start; I feel better. And if that doesn't work I may try using a question from Stephen Covey's book "First Things First": "Is this the best use of my time this moment?" Doesn't work every time but what method does? How do you escape inertia's grip?

#12: The Mt. Rushmore Series (Two For One)

Which four highly memorable misfits from literature would be on your Mt. Rushmore? Because none of mine have yet been depicted on film, this iteration of Mt. Rushmore is a two for one deal; yours need not be. My granite figures are listed chronologically by release date of the book.

1.) Holden Caulfield from "Catcher in the Rye":  In April 2011, I asked who people would cast as this unforgettable misfit from JD Salinger's 1953 masterpiece if it ever made it to film. My favorite reader response to that early post? Jesse Eisenberg - brilliant!

2.) Ignatius Reilly from "A Confederacy of Dunces": Given this character's despicable personal habits, it's difficult for me to imagine anyone except John Belushi playing Reilly in a movie. Since John Kennedy Toole's hilarious book was not released until 1980, we need Marty McFly to hop in the DeLorean and mess with the time/space continuum.

3.) Dolores Price from "She's Come Undone": I've been a little stuck for who to cast as Dolores ever since Wally Lamb created this lost soul in 1990. Now that Melissa McCarthy is a force to be reckoned with, my search is over.

4.) Oscar Wao from "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao": To do justice to the eponymous character of Junot Diaz' 2007 novel, MISFIT needs strong emphasis. Before sharing my choice, if you've read this marvel of a book, please tell me first who you'd cast.

But more significantly, which four memorable literature misfits belong next to Washington et al?        

That Not So Funny Feeling

You meet someone new, either one-on-one or in a group situation. Almost immediately you get the clear sense this person has a visceral dislike for you. What happened?

It's possible some of you have never had this experience. I have, more than once, and do not believe I've been paranoid, clinically or otherwise. Further, I suspect my experience is not at all unique. When it occurred again not long ago, I wondered - what just happened? Out came my journal and, as is often the case, any answers I approached were rapidly superseded by additional questions to myself. Any of these ring a bell?

What did this situation share with similar situations from the past?
How much of the other person's reaction to me could simply be bad chemistry?
What part did I play in helping create that chemistry?
How can I learn from this?

Of course, it's unrealistic to expect everyone we meet will like us. In my case, with charm not being a strong suit, I would be delusional to have that expectation. Still, I'm on the lookout for patterns in these situations to help me reduce future incidences of that not so funny feeling.  
 

Seasonal Sound

Setting aside the stunning weather, sounds alone signal for me the glorious transition between spring and summer in New Jersey.

* Even when not my cup of tea, any music coming from cars with the windows down invariably makes me smile.

* The bells of a passing ice cream truck? I'm ten years old again.

* Try sneaking up on someone wearing flip-flops. When else in the year does the sound of footwear so clearly mark a change of season?

Which sounds help you mark this time of year? Listen closely, then share with me and others.

First, The Book

Here's something annoying about being a movie geek. When I see a movie adapted from a book before reading the book, I frequently have trouble visualizing characters the author describes without seeing the actors who portrayed the characters. How do you escape doing this?

Most novels I read end up being cast in my head; doesn't matter if they ever end up as films. And if they do get made, my casting choices rarely match the end product - also doesn't matter. The process of imagining someone in a role based on an author description is fun and fodder for my creative mill. But reading "The Heart is A Lonely Hunter" (Carson McCullers) recently for the first time, I found it difficult to get Alan Arkin, who portrayed John Singer in the film, out of my head. Same thing happened to me a few months ago while reading Jacquelyn Mitchard's excellent novel "The Deep End of the Ocean". Though I tried not to get distracted, I found the faces of Michelle Pfeiffer, Treat Williams and Whoopi Goldberg occasionally interrupting the narrative line of that book as I read it.

The silver lining? When a movie closely adheres to a book, like the film adaptations of both the McCullers and Mitchard novels, story and characters stay with me longer. I guess that's a fair trade for being a movie geek. Still, David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" is in my current reading queue, to be finished before watching the recent film. Which is your preferred order?

A Bloomsday Post

"Some books are meant to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read but not curiously and some few to be read wholly with diligence and attention.": Francis Bacon

Although I might add an additional category for books meant to be spit out before going too far, Francis Bacon's words resonate with me. "A Passion For Books" (1999) by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan fell solidly into Bacon's second category; I swallowed it. What was the last book about books that captivated you?

But...perhaps you'd want just a taste? That would be easy to accommodate. Among the 60 selections are essays, short stories, lists, cartoons, a bibliolexicon and a bibliobibliography. The contributors include notables like Flaubert, Philip Roth, Susan Sontag. Tone ranges from light (Roger Rosenblatt's "Bibliomania") to educational (Ben Zevin's "The Bible Through The Ages") to somber and emotional (Solly Ganor's "The Book Action"). Length? One page to twenty one; something for every taste.

Easy to envision someone tasting this book lover's treasury though I swallowed. Chewed and digested anyone?

Asking Again: Can This Be Right?

Of my posts with a discernible theme, the three I've written under this heading have prompted some of the most lively conversations. So once again: Join in and share with me and others some words whose meaning just doesn't feel quite right to you.

1.) ordnance:  cannon or artillery. Can this be right? How can such an innocuous sounding word be so deadly? Did some evil military linguist make this up so killing and maiming people would sound less horrible?

2.) enervated: without vigor, force, or strength; languid. Without fail, every time I've used this word, someone asks me "Are you sure that's correct?" And I'm talking about smart people, like my wife.

3.) avuncular : of, pertaining to, or characteristic of an uncle. Try and convince me this word doesn't sound like it should apply only to uncles who are perverts. I ask you, how can this be right?

If anyone doesn't want to wait until next June for three more of mine, glad to share offline several from my long list. At this point, with one post per year and three words in each, I've got better than a ten year supply. 

    

Come on, Girls - Help Me Out

For just a moment, put aside the whole optimist/pessimist, glass half full or half empty conversation and answer this question: Which do you find yourself doing more often -chastising yourself for the things you don't do or congratulating yourself for the things you do?

I pose this challenging question because although I more often chastise vs. congratulate myself, I don't have a clear sense of how others on the bell curve would answer this. And though I was mindful while raising my daughter to congratulate her more often than chastise, I often wonder how much impact my parenting had on her regarding this. Those of you who are parents, which tendency do you see as more dominant in your children?

A special plea for an online response to this question goes to my sisters, both of whom invariably have interesting and sometimes provocative (albeit mostly offline) things to say about my posts. Come on, girls - help me get a more robust online conversation going, will ya?