I had to write a 260 page screenplay. That’s six hours. Jack said, “Well now you’ve got to cut out 40 pages.” I said, “God, I can’t.” He said, “Go ahead, I know you can do it. I’ll be behind you.” So I cut 40 pages out. He said, “OK, now you’ve got to get another 40 pages out.” But I got it down to 180 pages. And then Jack said, “Thirty more.” And I said “Impossible, impossible!” OK, I got it down to 150 pages. He said, “OK now thirty more.” Well, he kept telling me I could do it. And, by God, I went through a final time and got it down to 120 pages. It was better. ~ Ray Bradbury
Month: January 2019
I Have A Dream ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Excerpt from I Have A Dream speech, 1963
Today’s Reflection ~ Community
We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sorrow Is Like a Ceaseless Rain
When I began writing Dancing Alone: Learning to Live Again I was unsure I’d find my way through the grieving process. I began Chapter 1 with the poem, Sorrow, by Edna St. Vincent Millay. His poem expressed how I felt. Here is the poem as I placed it at the beginning of Chapter 1 in Dancing Alone: Learning to Live Again:
SORROW
Sorrow like a ceaseless rain
Beats upon my heart.
People twist and scream in pain,
Dawn will find them still again;
This has neither wax nor wane,
Neither stop nor start.
People dress and go to town;
I sit in my chair.
All my thoughts are slow and brown:
Standing up or sitting down
Little matters, or what gown
Or what shoes I wear.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Dancing Alone: Learning to Live Again. Available in paperback and ebook formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Kobo.
Excerpt From
Dancing Alone: Learning to Live Again
Raymond Calabrese
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Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #18
We never sit anything out. We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. ~ Ray Bradbury
Today’s Reflection ~ Success
“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”
– Dalai Lama XIV
Practicality of Love by Pedro Arrupe SJ
Love
Nothing is more practical than
finding God, than falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.
—Attributed to Pedro Arrupe, SJ
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #17
Dandelion Wine, like most of my books and stories was a surprise. I began to learn the nature of such surprises, thank God, when I was fairly young as a writer. … No one told me to surprise myself … I learned to let my senses and past, tell me all that was somehow true. ~ Ray Bradbury
Today’s Reflection ~ Courage
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
– Anais Nin
To Melancholy by John K. Bangs
To Melancholy
The last invitation anybody would accept is “Come, let us weep together.” If we keep melancholy at our house, we should be careful to have it under lock and key, so that no one will observe it.
Melancholy,
Melancholy,
I’ve no use for you, by Golly!
Yet I’m going to keep you hidden
In some chamber dark, forbidden,
Just as though you were a prize, sir,
Made of gold, and I a miser—
Not because I think you jolly,
Melancholy!
Not for that I mean to hoard you,
Keep you close and lodge and board you
As I would my sisters, brothers,
Cousins, aunts, and old grandmothers,
But that you shan’t bother others
With your sniffling, snuffling folly,
Howling,
Yowling,
Melancholy.
John Kendrick Bangs.
