Broccoli

Finally, at 9:00 on the evening of the last day of our three-day weekend, I have read the assignment from last Thursday-- the chapter entitled "Broccoli" in Bird by Bird.

This was a really interesting chapter for me. For one thing, I connected almost immediately, as something struck me on the very first page: "When we listened to our intuition when we were small and then told the grown-ups what we believed to be true, we were often either corrected, ridiculed, or punished" (Lamott 110). How often does that happen? I mean, I have the same problem now, as an "adult." I percieve a problem with someone, like a parent or a friend, and they will attempt to cover it up. It doesn't happen all that often, but I can only imagine what it is like for children. Another passage I loved in this chapter came later: "Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going through the material coldly" (114). In my absolutely miniscule amount of time that I have actually spent wrinting seriously, I have noticed the same sort of thing. When I am alone in my room, sitting at the computer, trying to churn something out, I really do feel completely different than I ever have. It's funny though, because in the next chapter, I totally understand what it is like to be deep in thought about where someting is going and then have to be awakened into the world of the living by a phone call from mom or the yoweling of a hungry cat. "You get off the phone," Lamott says, "and your mind has become a frog brain that scientists have saturated with caffeine" (118). I have a difficult time coping with these interruptions. Lamott advises "Close your eyes. Breathe. Begin again." I really feel like this book is going to help me a lot.