Michael Jordan and Writing

Growing up I always loved basketball. Not so much playing the game--there's not a lot you can do at 5'4", plus I pretty much suck--as much as watching it. To this day I don't really know where I got that from. My dad was never really that into it, and there was no one else I knew who affected me enough to make me love the game. But I've always been a huge basketball fan.

As a kid of six or seven, I had two favorite teams. The New York Knicks--because that's where I'm from--and the Chicago Bulls, because of Michael Jordan. I think he really was one of a kind, the kind of player that doesn't come around twice. I've always admired the way he played. The sheer talent. His face would light up on the court and when he jumped up for one of his famous dunks he'd fool every single person into believing, just for one second, that he could actually fly.

Rainbow Writers

I love words. I love everything about them. Even the days when I can't bring myself to get up off the couch and stringing two semi-competent words together is more of a chore than cleaning out a barn (not that I've ever actually done that), they still hold a special place in me.

One of the (many) things I love about writing is the sheer diversity of it. No two people write the same kind of stories, use the same words, describe a face or a handshake or love in the same way . You could have a hundred people write the same exact story, set in the same exact place, with the same characters, and no two end results would be the same. There are endless, endless possibilities with words, with language; a myriad of ways to describe what you feel or see or hear.

No one writes like you do. Whether you're scribbling your deepest, most personal thoughts in a journal, penning the Great American Novel, or writing funny little stories for your kids. Every single person has a unique voice, which no one else can duplicate. And if you strive to find your own, to hone it and polish it and always, always keep adding to it, then you'll discover you can go to places you might have never thought you could.

If you work at it, it will work for you too. You get what you give. And that's as true with writing as it is with everything else in life. And if you do work at it, and you do try to develop that voice that is yours and yours only, you'll get rewarded in ways you never imagined.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that every person's writing is as different and unique as their fingerprints. And I find that amazing. The key is figuring out which color is yours, which shade of yellow or green or blue is you. Because it doesn't matter what we write, how much we write, where or how we write; at the end of the day, we are all rainbow writers.

Beach Treasure

Today I'd like to tell you a little story.

Time: A couple years ago, back when I was still a teenager.

The setting: Vacation with my parents, on a beach somewhere in Greece (doesn't narrow it down much, but I can't remember where we were exactly). There's a very high, very old staircase that leads to a tavern, about fifty feet from the shoreline.

The story: As is the norm during my teenage years, I'm in another one of my angsty, nobody-understands-me-and-my-problems moods. My family and I are eating lunch at said tavern, and when I'm done I decide to ditch them and take a stroll down by the water. Most of the swimmers have already left by now, so I have the tiny beach all to myself.

So I'm walking back and forth along the shoreline, grumbling about the unfairness of it all, and all too soon my parents are calling to me from a distance, because it's time to go. I pick my moody myself up and make my way back up the beach, anticipating the very gloomy ride home, when something in the sand catches my eye.

Twenty-Six Letters

People say, "I love books."

People say, "I love words."

But how many people say, "I love the alphabet"?

Think about it. Think about all the thousands of books you've heard about, or read, or whatever. Think about the endless stories out there; the mysteries, the romances, the tales of courage and hope and growth.

Think about your favorite book of all time. Think about how you feel every time you crack it open, just to read a line or two. Think about the myriad of emotions it's made you feel, the places it's taken you to. Think about the language that you love so much, the sentences and words that make your heart beat a little faster because you just get it.

Think about cards. Postcards. Letters. Poetry. Plays. Screenplays. Novels. Dictionaries. Think about the thousands upon thousands of books that have ever been written--published or unpublished, by a six-year-old stapling folded pieces of paper together or a world-renowned best-selling author--and now think about this:

It only takes twenty-six letters.