Today I Didn't Write Crap

Yesterday I sat down to wallow my way through a personal experience I'd had (writing absolute rubbish over the course of an afternoon's hour). And I'm glad I did it, because what I ended up vomiting onto the blog yesterday gave me the confidence to try again today.

I was driving home from the grocery store this morning listening to NPR, which I do often, and the guest was pitching capitalism as the great American way. Or, more specifically, pitching outsourcing as the great American way.

Now this guy was adamant that everyone benefits from this arrangement - Americans get more money, people overseas get jobs, overall quality of retail products is better, etc. etc. etc. Personally, I understood how he was constructing his argument...but I sure would beg to differ.

And that got me thinking about why I beg to differ. We all have opinions about things, but most of us forget how we formed those opinions in the first place. And honestly I think it's kind of important to examine these things, both for our own growth and for the advancement of the human race. But that's a story for another day.

I realized that my perspective was based on something I've become fairly passionate about. I definitely did have reasons for feeling the way I did, and they were good reasons (from where I sit), and they were also reasons that maybe others should consider. So I sat down after putting my chicken in the fridge and let the thoughts flow out as they wanted.

The essay I wrote today was called "Five Dollars Can Change The World," and I really do like the title I came up with for this piece. If you want to know what it's about, you'll have to stay tuned because it's a secret (I giggle coyly). But I feel like it's one of the best essays I've written in this book of essays I'm working on, which is now approaching 50 pages and 15,000 words.

We all need wins in our lives. Sometimes the loses outweigh the wins to the extent that we get lost in a dark hole and struggle to climb out. That's how I've been feeling a lot lately, in so many ways, and I know it's coming out in my blog.

But I've learned over the last couple of years to take the small wins where I can find them. And sometimes the win is spending 45 minutes crafting an essay you really like. Sometimes it's cooking a lovely dinner that makes your family happy. Sometimes it's reading a good book, or watching your favorite tv show, or going out to a festival in the fall.

Today I didn't write crap. That's my win for the day.