....said the Beggar to the Thief

This is really really easy. First I start with the hairpins and then pretty soon I will have gotten to the socks. Let us hope the socks don't stink. Let us talk. What I mean is, let me talk.
I've always wanted to start a blog in the rain. And so this is perfect. Here it is raining. It just happens to be my birthday. And here you are with your eyes peeled. How good can it get? It can get really good, if the rest of this goes the way it has been going so far.
Some folks like to start with a joke or something shocking, something that will keep you reading in any event. I think I am not that good with punchlines, I'm always tipping you off, so to speak. So, I will go for a shock. The truth of the matter is I am waiting for inspiration to strike me. I would like it to follow with something meaningful, but that is always a matter of perception.
The thing is (and this is very embarrassing), I am happy.
Long ago in a high-school creative writing class--lemmee see, that must have been about five years or so ago-- there was a discussion amongst the members of the class on the merits of happiness as an inspiration to writing. The idea that one could be happy and well balanced and yet still be an interesting writer was doubted high and low. The predominant idea was in fact, one must starve and suffer and exhibit signs of craziness before one would be even mildly interesting.
So, I went off to seek my opposite fortune. I went off to fail and be crazy and starve and suffer, as I knew--because, of the aforesaid discussion, that it must be so if I wished to be a great writer. Unfortunately, in all my starving and craziness and failure and suffering, I had no time to write. Though I did make a fool out of myself, many times over.
Some would dispute that, saying" ahhh , she was one of my favorite B-movie actresses. She was okay with me." (Yes,I've heard them.) But that's where we don't jibe. I was kind of cute. I even had good timing on a few of the lines I delivered. But I failed myself. I failed the artist in me. I did not hold out for something with nutritional value. I know in my heart of hearts, I was a fool plain and simple.
Fortunately for me (diametrically opposed to conventional wisdom), being a fool is often just as good or better for getting there as any other route. Getting there? Getting where? Okay, we are going to have to continue this one-way discussion on another occasion. The rain is having a soporific effect on me and I want to take advantage.