It's 1130pm, March 5th, as I begin to write this, the Cats are napping on the bed, Mark Levin is holding court on "Audio Rewind" on my computer, and I want to share some thoughts, even as I also share some photos taken on a walk I took around the campus of Chapman University, in Orange, this afternoon, looking for creative, and personal, inspiration for the journey ahead. After reading about my trip to the Inland Empire, recently, my friend, and long time fan of my blogging, Jaspar, sent me an e-mail in response to something I wrote: > I had worked for the family owned chain, Newsboy Books and Video, Amazing to think that everything in the store is now available There is a metaphor is all this, but I'm not quite sure what it is. There is also something here about the "story arc" of your life, I still can't wrap my brain around our new concept of "place." Your piece was a nice sentimental journey. It's part of a I really, really miss the old news stands and bookstores, Yes, I've come a long way since 1998, when I bought my first computer, and ventured online. I'm not the same person I was way back then...I'm different, and far better, for all that I have gone through. Since I began reading books by Julia Cameron, and others, in the Fall, I've taken to writing in journals, writing morning pages, writing in the present, and jotting down creative writing prompts. On January 6th, I wrote the following: I've been here for just over an hour, now, writing in my morning pages, and eating lunch. I've been surrounded by the backround noise of other diners, young, & old, at surrounding tables, & the employees at the front counter taking orders. As I sit here, now, the room is almost empty of diners, and I have my book bag sitting next to me, and the book "Writing from the Heart by Hal Zina Bennett, on the table next to my diet coke. I happen to look up, & notice, for the first time the large, funny, poster art/photo of "Jack", usually found all over the walls of the restaurants, and laugh at the one in my booth. It's black & white, & shows Jack sitting at a table, presumably directly across from me in the same booth... Before him are a scattering of papers, & a black marker...& 2 boxes of French Fries, 1 regular, 1 curly. Jack, in a long-sleeved shirt, & suspenders, is leaning sideways, elbow on the edge of the table, fist propping up his head, & wearing an expression best described as a combination of tired, & undecided. Undecided & tired about the fries, or something else, like who he is sitting across from, is left for the occupant of the booth to fathom.
> from 1984 to 2001, the last 11 of those years as a store manager.
online. In one generation, the need for paper disappeared.
the transition of Kiril in the paper world to the e-Kiril or
i-Kiril of the Internet.
greater journey that we're all taking.
with a solid sense of place and paper.
Presently I am sitting at a table in a corner of a Jack-in-the-Box just north of Lincoln & State College, in Anaheim.
( Charles Dickens Display in the College Library )
It's now just after 1pm, & I'm the only person in the diner, all the tables around me are empty, then a couple places an order, and sits at a table.
Was I "born to write"?
I don't pretend to know, I only know I've always been a creative writer, from my school days writing my earliest little story about a childhood friend, & doing school projects, and book reports, then creative Star Trek stuff in my teens, & 20's.
Someone, quoted in Bennett's book, once said that "when we choose a goal, & invest ourselves in it to the limits of our concentration, whatever we do will be enjoyable. And once we have tasted this joy, we will redouble our efforts to taste it again. This is the way the Self grows."
I've been growing as a creative writer since 1998 when, after a decade, I found my first new way of creative expression, through my cat, Nikita, online.
I took new steps in 2002, and 2004, especially with my cat writing, as a blogger, and then in 2010 really discovered how much I enjoyed doing this, and expanded my creativity in new directions by giving Nikita his own blog.
( "There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty" -- Margaret Thatcher )
( "A society that puts equality ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom...
A society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom, & greater equality" -- Plaque with bust of Milton Friedman )
Now, as 2012 opens, & "Elvira Mistress of Felinity" has been part of the team for over a year, I am eager to find new ways to put my creativity to use.
Through the artful use of the "personas" of Nikita & Elvira, I have been trying to build bridges between their consciousness as the bloggers, and personalities, in their own right, and the consciousness of the reader.
Readers, and fellow bloggers, understand that I, Daddy Kiril, am the human "Voice" behind each cat, but they are buying into the fiction, and interacting with the cats as if they are more than just the photos on the blog.
( "I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph, & there is purpose & worth to each, and every, life." -- Ronald Reagan )
There is a whole, worldwide, community of cat Bboggers who, many of them, have also created such "characters" for their own cats.
I am not alone in my mad creativity!
Was I born to be a writer?
Bennett says there is a part of writing that's divine, connecting us with a greater authority than ourselves.
God? The universe? The individual muse?
Whatever it is we are all born with THAT he says.
The promise, he believes, of this, is that we can learn to tap into our creative potential at any point in our lives, trusting that the WORD lives in us.
If I, at age 51, soon to be 52, dare to claim this prize, then I can build my creative dreams.
The day began here -- A Middle-aged Writer, and His Original Muse, Celebrate a Birthday #1
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