In Ten Years, However

At 7:00 Warren George woke up and sneezed for ten minutes. In the bathroom, he splashed water on his face until his eyes stopped tearing. He then proceeded to empty his sinuses. Three minutes later, as he looked at himself in the mirror and thought all was well, he began to choke and spit in the sink.

It was 7:25 when Warren popped the cap off the first pill bottle. He filled the paper cup to the brim with each handful: levocetirizine, diphenhydramine, odansetron, oxymetazoline, naproxen.

Sable, Warren's young bride, sighed and smiled to herself at his cute morning routine.

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Silliness Solidifies Relationships

On February 8th, I posted an introduction of sorts called "Toward a Manifesto of Silliness." Every week since then I've written about silliness, mostly as a way to meditate on and answer the question: What makes silliness important? My family and I talked it over, and here are our answers: "Silliness is a Sign of Joy." "Silliness is Important Because We are Silly." "Silliness is Just Fun." "Silliness Helps Bring Balance." Thinking on and writing about those answers helped this last silly answer grow -- I had an idea at first, but those initial answers shaped how I thought/think about silliness. It was a suspicion that began the day my youngest son and I played our game of nothing. Remember? All this began with nothing. Try to imagine: First, we sat side by side, the whole room bright from the sun. Soon, he draped his arms around my neck, and because of the faces we'd been making, laughter took over. His brothers were close by, ...

Silliness Helps Bring Balance

If you've been with us for the last few weeks, you're beginning to see what we feel about silliness. If you haven't been checking in on us, however, here's what you've missed: * We asked some initial questions about why silliness is important . * Firstly, we said, silliness is a sign of joy . * Secondly, we are obviously silly and obviously important. You are, too, if you were wondering . * Thirdly, silliness is just fun . Don't worry, we'll wait while you catch up on all that reading. ... Good, I'm glad you're back! We're just giving another answer: Fourthly, silliness is important because it helps bring balance. I hope you know we're being earnest, if not completely serious. That last sentence made me smile, and I needed it at the moment. You see, even though all this writing and posting amounts to little, there's a feeling that begins at the back of my mind when I think I'm doing something good, especially when I'm glad about m...

The Apostle James Attends My Creative Writing Class

We'll begin with something a bit fantastic, that being a visit from the apostle James: He stood at my school desk the other day -- I'd gone for some water -- and he opened one of my books. It lay flat on my desk next to a description of an exercise we do in class. Conveniently, the book he opened contained his own letter to some of the first people to proclaim Jesus as the Christ, and he flipped right to it. He didn't say anything, but pointed out to me a few passages. Then he directed my eyes to some parallels in what we do in my Creative Writing classes. It's in light of this that I offer this meditation on faith and writing. I'm in my 9th year of creative writing instruction. Spread into two classes, almost evenly, I have 22 students this year -- which is more than usual. The mix of students who want to write with those who need an easy class to blow off is about the same; the mix of their anxieties, if we only consider anxieties that are class-related, is also n...

Ian M. Anderson

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