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The World’s Most Successful Loser
Day 38, Tuesday 24th April 2018
Nothing seems to be satisfying in life unless it is experienced to extreme and opposing levels. Life is only a pleasure when the full breadth of human emotion is embraced, both elated joy and sombre sadness, ecstatic pleasure and writhing pain.
Roald Dahl, the famous children’s writer who formed an indelible background to my generation and possibly those after me, had a beautiful writing routine. He had a shed in the garden, a comfy chair with a blanket, a Thermos of tea and then would sit down to write. One of the most significant parts of his process is that he would write a few pages and then chuck them in the bin. It takes a while to get the new words in the right order.
Nothing is permanent, life is temporary, everything is transient. Writing is just words and there’s no need to be precious over them, there’s lots more of them available and you can utilise each one as many times as you want. You’ll never run out of the word ‘omnipotent’ or ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’.
Omnipotent, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, omnipotent, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, omnipotent, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, omnipotent. See?
Time is different, as there might not be any more. I might die now, as might you, which is a…
