I took a photo of three bamboo stalks a while back.  What interested me was the curling.  As I looked at the stalks, I realized that in its simpleness there is much symbolism. 

Bamboo is a Chinese symbol for longevity.  It earned this distinction because if you ever had bamboo grow in your yard and tried to get rid of it, you realize that bamboo is hardy.  It springs back even when you have pulled all the stalks year after year.  The bamboo root system is extensive and prolific.  Despite my efforts to eradicate the plant, every year the tender stalks poke their way through the underbrush.  Its endurance and adaptability are a lesson to us all that the secret to a long, happy life is to go with the flow.

It is significant that there are only three stalks in this vase.  You’ve heard people say that “things happen in three’s.” 

Three seems to have a completeness about it.  Many phases of life and other references exhibit how three is important in understanding higher concepts of life.  Take these for example:

• child/adult/senior
• mother/father/child
• life/death/rebirth (meaning life after death).
• birth/life/death
• red, blue, yellow - the 3 primary colors with which all other colors are created
• three phases of the moon
• three wishes for a genie
• three wise men
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• physical, mental and spiritual
• thought, word and deed
• animal, vegetable and mineral
  

In writing combinations of three also appear:

• beginning, middle, end
• creating a scene: goal, conflict, disaster
• creating a sequel: reaction, dilemma, decision
• three acts in a play
• rising action, climax, denouement

If you are looking for some real insight, I don’t have any.  I’m just writing whatever comes to my head in the early hours of the morning (1:22 AM).  I could go on and make some connection to the fact that the stalks remain green all year round.  And maybe there is something symbolic in that the leaves, which are much more tender than an oak, are few and appear at the end of the stalk. 

This exercise shows what can happen when you let your mind wander, connecting the dots between the universal truths and that which is real and concrete.  Every writer needs the ability to dream, because that is his or her well of inspiration.

I used to know a lot of important stuff and a lot more unimportant, unrelated bits of information that I’m sure will not come in handy to anyone, except if you are a game show guest or writing a novel. 

I used to be smart, but one day I was watching Cash Cab, a tv reality game show.  The fares answer questions for money while riding to their destination somewhere in mid-Manhattan.  I read the newspapers. I watch the 7 o’clock news.  I pay attention to Jay Leno’s monologues to be up on the really important highlights of the day.  But I miss half Ben Bailey’s questions.

In college, I entered trivia contests and believe it or not…won.  I won geography contests…this makes my husband roll over in laughter.  I won spelling bees, but now I have trouble remembering how to spell hors d’oeuvre.  Gee, that word will forever look like it is spelled wrong.

In high school my friends actually thought I was cerebral.  I liked talking about literature and cut my teeth on Sidhartha, Nietzche, and Marxism.  I was enthralled by Machiavelli’s The Prince.  The denial of morality in political affairs and the justification of craft and deceit in pursuing political power came as cerebral jolt to my naive teen outlook of the world.

I used to be smart.  I knew who the 16th president was.  And what year George Washington became president.  I knew how to spell Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and now I have all I can do to pronounce it.  In the years since earning my graduate degree, I began a long, slow slide into a mental lethargy. 

Around age 35 I started teaching college English.  It is then I realized how ignorant I had become.  I entered motherhood a couple of years earlier.  I had traded in my grasp of concepts and thought for expertise in diaper rash, flash cards, and walks in the park. 

I watched as my expensive education became obfuscated by the distraction of babies crying,  mundane chats with neighbors, and house cleaning.   It was like quicksand.  Once I stepped in, it was hard to pull myself out, that is, unless I was Bear Grylls in Man vs. Wild.

I depend on Google to remind me of the details of chronological history, names and dates and have to quickly scour literary SparkNotes.com to jog my memory about plotlines, characters, and themes.  I can still add 2 plus 2.  Thank heaven for small favors. 

As I fast approach my senior years, will I my life be reduced to toggling between watching “Wheel of Fortune” and playing gin rummy?  Will I pick up a Danielle Steele novel instead of a book such as “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch?

What do I attribute my cerebral void?  It isn’t all about aging.  It is about life’s choices.  At the time, I wasn’t aware how my choices would shape my present.  If Dara Torres (42 year old Olympic athlete) can make a comeback on the swimming circuit, I can too, especially now that my children are leaving my home to start their own.  And while I am creating a wish list here, I wouldn’t mind reclaiming my twenty-something body. 

I have a stack of books to read. I have the Internet.  I am ready to become an information junkie.

So, Ben Bailey.  Next time I’m in NYC, I will be looking for your cab.  I’ll be ready for you.

Sorry about the hiatus.  I was contemplating in what direction I was taking this blog.  I am debating whether introducing more of me into the content would dilute the content.

So, I have been scouring other writing blogs to see what other bloggers say on the topic.  A couple of them have two individual blogs.  One dedicated to writing and the other dedicated to more personal perspectives. 

I can barely find time to write this blog (I work full time).  So sustaining two blogs is not happening. And while I could blog at work, because I am often alone in the office, I do not.  No, I don’t consider myself a goody two shoes (I wonder where that strange expression came from?) by any stretch of the imagination.  I just think that I can accomplish more if I try to keep my activities confined to blocks of time. 

Okay, I also think that when you are hired to do a job and you do your own thing on company time, you are in essence stealing from the company.  It isn’t traditional stealing in tangible goods, but nevertheless, it impacts the bottom line.  How does a small business truly grow if everyone on the payroll takes undue advantage of the situation?

I began this blog on a whim.  Writing daily was my first goal.  I know that if I keep the channels open, writing becomes easier.  It’s like playing piano.  You lay off the keys for awhile; you get rusty.   It also builds a readership.

During my hiatus, I have been learning about search engine optimization and working on writing projects.  I sense that I am spreading myself thin, so I’m paring down again.

I will stick with this blog, because I have things about writing to share.  I will work on my writing. 

And while we are on the topic of knowledge and sharing….did you ever notice that as we grow older, we seem to know less? 

Visit again and learn what I just noticed about aging and learning.  Sometimes, it is painful to be that observant.

When I started blogging, I never realized just how much energy it would take to sustain writing consistently.  I have to admit it became a little easier the more I posted, but still sometimes I think of it as work instead of a fun thing to do.

I like blogging.  Did I kill the fun when I limited the topic to the business of writing?  On some days, such as this, I like writing about whatever I’m thinking about.  (Okay who’s yawning out there?)

Unless my blog becomes a reveal all reality journal, what will be the attraction, the hook?  And do I really want to venture into the realm of telling people I hated my ex-boyfriend’s mother or brother or couldn’t stand my husband’s best friend?

Is it okay now to air the family’s dirty laundry?  Remember the Jones next door will know my secrets and the Jones family in Siberia will too.  

Victoria Schmidt writes “if you can’t stand conflict in life, then you won’t be able to write conflict on the page.  Conflict is what stories are made of, so get used to it.  Enjoy it.  When writers can’t stand to do bad things to their characters, they usually are terrified of conflict.  These writers rarely have successful careers.”  Her point is well taken…but who goes out there and taunts viewers to charge them with daggers? 

Okay, yes shock jocks like Howard Stern and Don Imus, well known for antagonizing one group or another do it.  Yes they are successful for not dancing around conflict but what is the price they have to pay? 

Will I ever be that controversial?  Probably not.  Do I have something to say?  I think so.

So, my immediate issue is that I need to make blogging fun again.

We blog because we want attention.  Otherwise why not write in a journal and hide it under the mattress, the way most people did four decades ago? 

I’m changing the tone, but not the look.  I’m evolving and so is this blog.

Welcome to: The World According To Cori Chu.