In Today’s Journal
* My Quote of the Day
* Doctor Mardy Does It Again
* Ups and Downs
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
My Quote of the Day
“After I forced my way through the birth canal, I decided that was more than enough work. Everything I’ve done since then has been sheer pleasure. Why would I ever retire?” Harvey
Doctor Mardy Does It Again
In his Quotes of the Week (see Of Interest), Doctor Mardy Grothe presents thoughts about retirement. He opens, appropriately for TNDJ, with a quote from Isaac Asimov. I won’t spoil it for you. After you’ve read today’s TNDJ, go check it out.
Ups and Downs
This has nothing and everything to do with writing fiction, or as I like to call it, ‘having fun.’
There are always ups and downs. This works right; that doesn’t. This is fun or enjoyable; that is not. This is dangerous (some would say exciting or exhilarating); that is safe (some would say wearisome or boring).
But that you are here to experience those ups and downs is nothing short of a miraculous gift.
From that moment when you first beat out millions of other little swimmers to fertilize an egg in your mother’s womb, you have been the most fortunate person on Earth. That single success opened up possibilities those millions of others will never know.
How very fortunate we are simply to draw breath, drink water, eat food, and pursue literally endless possibilities. Those possibilities exist specifically for us, and they exist only because we’re here.
And how very fortunate we are that it is up to us to choose which and how many of those possibilities we pursue and how we pursue them.
Everything else is only attitude, and attitude is always up to us.
Yeah, I know…. We’re also surrounded by and influenced by Others, and sometimes we’re subjected to circumstances that are beyond our control. Life happens, am I right?
So we must add to the list above what Others have done or not done and those circumstances that have occurred or not occurred and the direct influence all of that has on our choices.
Still, the choices themselves and whether and how we make them is up to us.
It’s true that we can do little or nothing about what Others do or say or about which circumstances occur or don’t occur. But only we can choose how any of that affects the rest of our day, week, year, and life.
We can find joy and fun and excitement in almost anything. Then, having hunted it down, we have another choice to make: kill it or party with it. I choose to party. (grin)
Of course, that’s just my own chosen attitude. I completely understand others trying this or that or something else and then choosing to do things differently than I do. Hey, if it doesn’t affect my productivity, whaddo I care?
But I completely lack the ability to comprehend why anyone would go through this miraculous gift of life without trying Everything at least once. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. (grin)
Anything can be a slogging, trudging drudgery, or it can be fun. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Life is what you make it, always has been, always will be.”
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: “Retirement”
Every NFL Team’s Top 10 Plays of All Time Video, about an hour and a half.
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 540
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 540
Writing of Blackwell Ops 51: Sam Granger | (To Be Determined)
Day 1…… 2807 words. To date………… 2807
Day 2…… 2489 words. To date………… 5296
Day 3…… 3111 words. To date………… 8407
Fiction for November……………………… 25468
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 687509
Nonfiction for November.………………… 8330
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 247800
2025 consumable words………………… 927740
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 17
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 121
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29