Day seventy-eight

We have discussed this before. Several times in fact. So please bear with me today as I make another attempt to clarify and define.

I do this primarily for myself. I find writing, journaling, recording, keeping a log to be a creative way to examine the day-to-day. Hopefully from this examination will come some improvement, refinement or perhaps even an entirely new view. Good writers will tell you that they have to get into character and see the world through the eyes of their protagonists. Otherwise, unless you live a double life, it's simply a diary in the first person. Nothing wrong with that of course, but not nearly as much fun as creating life, albeit on the page with imaginary animation.

Hence Fleming created Mr Bond
Shelley Frankenstein
Ludlum Bourne
Rowlings young Mr Potter
Carroll Alice
Verne Fogg
Tolkien Frodo Baggins
Doyle Holmes
Melville Starbuck

I have tried on a few occasions to create my own super-hero, superstar. It is hard work. Re-wiring my computer or 86 Volvo might be easier. But chunks are manageable. So instead of the chapter I try to craft the paragraph. Some days even a single sentence, a practice both Stanley Fish and Julia Cameron might approve.

It is also cathartic. Refreshing and, on rare days, even joyful.

But mainly I do it as a practice. The discipline required in the daily performance of this ritual is priceless, assisting in any number of other areas where these skills might come in handy. The right tool in your kit when you need it.

You might be thinking, "How the heck is writing a clean sentence going to help you get to T2 in your next triathlon?" A very good question.

Answer: Because I do this every day, as practice, sharing my hopes, dreams, fears, phobias and doubts with the world, I will endure. I live to write another day. It is the same as doing hill repeats. This is truth, a brutally honest assessment of the reality of the world that I create. Or, at the most banal, my spin on the importance of structure. At any time in any race, as the sun is blistering, your feet sore and your will shot full of more holes than deli-style Swiss cheese, the same ability to stay in the moment of now, the discipline to transform a weak, hungry, hurting and lost soul (you or me) into a strong finishing hero of the marathon, is a fascinating and valuable effort of non-fiction. The ability to stay on target, to reel in your wandering awareness and re-calibrate to laser-like precision, in the heat of battle, is a powerful cross-platform characteristic. It is not solely for exclusive use by those with powers far beyond those of mortal men. It can be yours. Write your story.

You get to script. I create. WE are our own heroes. Author yourself a victory.

Practice that on a daily basis, Superstar.