Have recently been doing some serious reading and that definitely stirred up some thoughts, including the idea that I need to do this more often.  I’ve read Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and several of Tolstoy’s short stories.  Tolstoy’s stories are definitely different from his novels, in that they frequently have an overt moral that is immediately apparent, if only at the end, and in his novels this aspect is much more subtle.  He’s definitely a master of both forms, (probably stronger as a novelist, but nonetheless a greatly skilled short story writer) and I’ve learned alot from reading these, as well as just having the enjoyment of appreciating such a great craft.  I often stop when I’m feeling the urge to write by that whole perfectionist thing:  if I can’t write as well as Tolstoy, or Salinger, or, honestly, better than them, what’s the point?  The point is these guys didn’t just one day sit down and write and this brilliant stuff poured forth, (maybe they did, who knows) but more likely they spent years honing this skill.  And that’s really what it is, a skill, not merely some innate talent that some just naturally possess, although there are some of those out there, but certainly they’re rare and the exception.  I recently read something that Steinbeck wrote, that he started out being terribly self-conscious of his writing, and, to him, quite bad.  But through repetition, hard work, and study, he became undoubtedly one of the masters.  And there’s a certain distaste to me of going through the motions of the inevitable and quite necessary bad writing, (like this) of it not being spectacular and a mountaintop experience every time.  That’s a wildly unrealistic expectation.  I guess ultimately it comes down to how bad to I want to arrive at a better product.  (what a terrible choice of a word! didn’t want to use “craft” again and that’s all I could think of)  I want to write better, to write well, better than that, to write greatly. (?)  And the only way to arrive at that is to continue to work at it,  to (gasp) work at it, to practice.  I guess that brings up a good example, practicing on a musical instrument.  I have no problem in practicing the guitar, (well, that’s not true, but I do pick it up more readily than writing) and while I sometimes had my struggles with practicing a half hour everyday at the drums, I did do it.  This is good, because it’s an example and illustration that I can readily understand and use.

I really don’t know how professional or even just serious writers do it, coming up with something every day.  I’ve read that the “real” writers write every day, whether it’s brilliant or crap.  I’ve certainly written my share of the second category, and with the exception of  journals I had to keep in college classes, have never written daily.  I don’t know, there seems to come a point at which, for lack of a better description, the inspiration runs out, and at that point either the crap starts coming or I just stop altogether, I suppose in order to avoid producing too much crap.  And I guess that’s the point at which I have to decide if I want to be a “serious” writer, or just a sometimes writer.  So far it’s been the latter.  I definitely feel something in me, some unnamed desire, to write.  That’s mainly come out as poetry, with the bulk of my prose consisting of papers and essays written for various classes over the years.  I also feel that coming a lot closer to the surface recently, whether it’s from friends who are writers talking about their struggles or whatever with their writing, or just some vague push to have the writing come out.

Ok, I’m seeing why I put off this post.  My ideas are not really concise; I have an opinion, but my points to back it up are not well formed.  I guess in a way that’s what this (the blog) is for, at least it can be: to help me sharpen my arguments in favor of health care reform.  I just reread what I’ve written so far, and concluded that perhaps I was a little to hard on myself.  I guess the reason I felt like my ideas aren’t clear enough is because it has felt like I’m struggling to come up with points to set down here.

Ok, I put this down for a while and now I’m going to give it another shot.  Before I went into my discussion about insurance companies, I mentioned the exorbitant prices people have to pay for medical care and medications.  While tort reform will undoubtedly bring prices down since doctors will no longer be frightened off huge lawsuits, this is not the whole picture, nor will that have an effect on drug prices.  Just noticed that I started each paragraph with “ok.”  Will have to keep an eye on that in the future and perhaps edit a couple of those out.  Back to prices.  There also needs to be some sort of regulation or levelling mechanism in place to keep prices down.  The stories about people going bankrupt from medical bills are both heartbreaking and unneccesary.  Again, the market is no way to determine medical prices.  People’s health is not a commodity to be bought and sold.  I think this is perhaps the most germane point regarding this whole debate.  For people with money to get the best care available, and those without money to not get the best care, or in some cases, no care at all, is both inequitable, and in my opinion, immoral.

This immorality is at the heart of my argument in favor of health care reform.  To me it’s immoral to leave market forces in charge of who gets the best health care and who gets none.  Capitalism works great in many respects, but this is one area where it clearly does not.  Every citizen in a country that calls itself the greatest on the earth should have available to them affordable, qualilty healthcare.  It’s not a privilege, it’s a right.  And the time has come to do something about it.  The momentum that the bills in both the house (which passed last saturday night, 11/14) and now the senate have needs to be continued to be fed and helped along.  Everyone (especially the republicans) are screaming that we need jobs, the economy needs fixing, and other things need more attention than this matter.  But healthcare has been on and off the table since teddy roosevelt, and the iron is hot, now is the time to strike.  Those other things will get taken care of, and once this matter has become law, the legistlators will be able to turn their full attention to those concerns.

Still haven’t figured out why sometimes it double spaces like that.  Guess I’m still going up in the learning curve.  Anyway, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and talk about healtcare reform.  But I’m gonna do it in a new post.  Ciao.

So nowadays, 25 years later, whenever there’s a soccer game on TV, whether it’s MLS, English Premier League, or the US National Team playing, I’m glued to the set.  I played a few years of coed rec soccer in my 30′s, and again had a great time.  I”m not sure that my old man’s body would like me playing now, but I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit.  I just might get out there and kick it around some more.  There’s nothing like the feel of being in the flow of a well-played soccer game.  I doubt I’ll ever end my love affair with the beautiful game.