# Extempore Thoughts for the Day - Authors, Thinking on their Feet



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I know that I've thought of some crazy threads in the past - some successful, like the Snippet Challenge, while othes not so, like the run-on story and the Limerick festival. So here's another place to shine.

In this thread, have a thought for the day, but express it in your best authorial style. Keep it brief. Inspire the reader. And it should be extemoraneous and not from one of your published works. Your not selling those in this thread. In this thread, your giving the world a peek at what makes you tick and perhaps, what makes you tock.

I'll begin, in a separate post, and hopefully others will follow. Limit is "one thought per day<' and think more "Twitter length" than "Moby Dick." If it doesn't work out, well, I'll break into limericks and it will go the way of that thread.

Edward C. Patterson

*Update:*
Well, If you wondered where this thread had gone, it went underground. That is, I stopped posting and gathered all my posts along with another blog _*A Reader's Guide to Author's Jargon * _ PLUS 2 other engaging works from the internet, _*New Leaves in the Wind * _ and _*Ask Miss Chatty * _ (a drag-queen advice column) and will be coming to a Kindle near you (probably in December) as _*A Reader's Guide to Author's Jargon and Other Ravings from the Blogosphere.*

_






Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

A thought for the day:

Thinking thoughts of home and of times past and Palm Sundays with my mother. Sweet gentle thoughts in old age. Youth surges in Springtime. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## ReeseReed (Dec 5, 2009)

It's not about smelling the roses.  It's easy to find good in beautiful things.

It's about finding the dandelions.  Plucking the joy from among the weeds.


----------



## Thumper (Feb 26, 2009)

Words carry only the weight of intention; the finger you point at those who speak those words, that carries the weight of judgment.


----------



## J.L. Penn (Mar 17, 2010)

I LOVE that, Reese!!!! 

Hmm ... Sometimes I like to say something profound, but sometimes I'm profoundly unable to think of something to say.  This is one of those times.

-Jenn


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

Have you ever noticed that when you give away love that the balance never shrinks?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Brendan      I'm gonna use that one on a bumper sticker or a T-shirt. Copyright it fast.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

It's a fine thing to remember the past and keep it Holy, but it is a finer thing to make the past come alive for future generations to refine. Traditions that live in both heart and mind are better than those that become shadow plays lost to ghosts.

Ed Patterson
Happy _pesach _ to all my Jewish friends


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

I think I left the iron on at home...


----------



## ReeseReed (Dec 5, 2009)

J.L. Penn said:


> I LOVE that, Reese!!!!
> 
> Hmm ... Sometimes I like to say something profound, but sometimes I'm profoundly unable to think of something to say. This is one of those times.
> 
> -Jenn


Thanks, Jenn. It's from an entry on my blog, when we took my son to see the specialists. Just in case you're interested: http://thisismamashouse.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/profound-moments/

I'm not good at profound, usually, but that incident on that day just spoke to me.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The rain is beckoning me to come out and splash in the puddles, but I fear getting my socks wet. There was a time when a good soaking was good for my soul. Now a wee wetting is a crisis to my health. So I think I'll send my mind outside instead. A little water on the brain won't dampen the imagination or extinguish the passion. And I'll still have dry socks to protect my feet of clay.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Brendan     I'm gonna use that one on a bumper sticker or a T-shirt. Copyright it fast.


Thanks, Ed, be my guest. Here's another thought:

I'm generally called a pessimist, but I don't mind because I'd like to think that I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than bitterly disappointed.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)




----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

As I came over the hill this morning and the sky shifted between two weather systems, I had primordial thoughts. I wondered what the flint scrapers thought when they noticed their climate changing and who told them to collectively to regard it. I wonder whether they had modern thoughts that matched my primordial ones. Antediluvian dreams.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Spring is a slow season to get going — a struggle to break through the permafrost and find life's warmth. I did it once. You did it once. So loosen up your permafrost to the seedlings can grow. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

Well, Ed.  Looks like the authors here don't do much thinking about thinking or posting about thinking and I'm thinking that they are thinking that they don't much care for extemporaneous goings on.  What do you think?


----------



## LCEvans (Mar 29, 2009)

Sometimes my children would complain about the dinner I fixed them and I would always say, "Take what you get and be glad you got it."


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Thinking is a gift and when it's share , it's a gift. But thinking can also be a demon, one best left to the private antechambers of the soul. Just ask any whale.

Ed Patterson


----------



## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

A non-author butting in here, I am really enjoying this thread!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Then it's a gift and will continue daily.



Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The sun rises. The heart rises. The soul rises. The horizon is near. The night is behind us, and on this morning we feel the warmth of life in all its manifestation. Blossoms burst and all the twigs sing the song everlasting.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Another day, another year, and perhaps another lifetime. Who knows why we survive gravity for so long. But that which glues us to the Earth's crust, also keeps the skin lotion industry in business - art and science allied.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## LCEvans (Mar 29, 2009)

Again, something I always told my children:  "No one can chase you unless you run." It occurs to me that I gave them a lot of advice that only my best children listened to.


----------



## Carol Hanrahan (Mar 31, 2009)

Rain is so good for my garden.


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

_Some trees grow in mirror image_: There is just as much good wood under the ground as there is above. Let us make sure we are planting good trees with deep roots and make our own lives mirror images of those wonders of nature that surround us.


----------



## jonfmerz (Mar 30, 2009)

Who Dares Wins - motto of the British Special Air Service, and one I live by every single day.


----------



## OliviaD (Jul 21, 2009)

When I walk in the sun with the breeze on my face, I imagine thousands of words fluttering away behind me and one day, when I'm all out of words to write, it will be time to drift away on that breeze and see where they all went.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

That's beautiful Olivia.

Mine for today:

Something stirs. Beneath the canopy of heaven, the grass cracks the through, unseen by the sleeping, but is felt, because it stirs, and in that the ground shakes.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Nathan (Nov 13, 2009)

If the lowly dung beetle can return home, wash his hands, and sleep deeply dreaming of a labor loved...then surely I can make it through today's S#@t.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I open my eyes today, and although only one of them still works and my soul yearns for the vistas I could once see, I am thankful that the light still drifts into the dead one, and that I can still share the many things captured in my heart when I was full sighted. perhaps now I'm better sighted, with my pen in hand. Ah, those glorious mist covered mornings in Gui-lin and dawn over the South China sea. Life is a gift to share and death is thereby transcended.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Nathan (Nov 13, 2009)

Hey Ed...my Extempor Thought for the day came out as a short story

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/12628


----------



## ReeseReed (Dec 5, 2009)

Jeff said:


> Life sucks and then you die.


Life's a b, and then you marry one!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Nathan. I downloaded it and put it in my TBR list.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Nathan (Nov 13, 2009)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Nathan. I downloaded it and put it in my TBR list.
> 
> Ed Patterson


haha...at 1500 words, it will probably not keep...get all moldy and stuff


----------



## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

ReeseReed said:


> Life's a b, and then you marry one!


I should be so lucky.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Some days the fish bite and the fisherman is happy. Some days they laugh at him, and he sits on the shore and pouts. But no matter how many fish he catches, there are always more laughing beneath the waves. So he sighs and whistles and baits the hook again, casting with his best lure. Flounders dream and dreams flounder.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you.


----------



## Nathan (Nov 13, 2009)

Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for life. Teach a man to _be_ a fish, he can eat himself. Teach a man to eat himself, and nothing really else matters.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Ah, Nathan, nothing like a touch of Ovid's Metamorphosis to make a person hungry.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I often wonder if when we dream of people we haven't seen in years whether they dream about us. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When I first saw the mist wrapped plum-pudding hills of Gui-lin, I knew that Heaven sighed for me and I believed in Brigadoon.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

My mother would wake me on most Sundays in spring for a quick ride to Sunday School, and I always fought her. Too much school for too many days in the week. Now I spend Sunday mornings sleeping past nine, but things have changed. There's still too much school, but now there's not nearly enough mother. I miss her most in spring and especially on Sunday mornings.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

In truth there is no sympathy.


----------



## mamiller (Apr 28, 2009)

Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.


----------



## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

mamiller said:


> Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.


See? That's why I'm a fan.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Brendan Carroll said:


> In truth there is no sympathy.


Then there's Tea and Sympathy. Ask any gay man.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

At work with numbers I get to use the left side of brain, which keeps it limber so I don't lose the right side to the dreaded A disease. However, every so often in the digits and dollar signs a cogent thought - an Homeric echo winks at me, and I feel like Darwinian man and dance the monkey _doodle-doo_.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## mamiller (Apr 28, 2009)

Jeff said:


> See? That's why I'm a fan.


Well...it was that or..."A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice."


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

mamiller said:


> Well...it was that or..."A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice."


I second that emotional outburst, Miss Miller and must add:

Stupid is as as stupid does, but most people are not aware of being stupid until some briliant makes it known to them.


----------



## Nathan (Nov 13, 2009)

"I'm just a dude, playing a dude, disguised as another dude"

I just love that line


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Finding your way in this world is perhaps our most challenging feat set before us, especially if your beauty is inner and your passions are denied. But if you use your inner beauty to light your passions, the lantern is not only carried, it is passed along to others. The clearing is well lit and we call it hope.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I just broke the last balloon that decorated my desk for my birthday last week. They go, you know — the balloons I mean. As for me, I shall last forever, or as long as the hot air blows.

Ed Patterson


----------



## maryannaevans (Apr 10, 2010)

Why do we tell stories?

We tell stories because they explain the unexplainable.

We tell stories because they are true.


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

A word is worth a thousand pictures.


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

If failure is not an option, change your perspective, reorder your expectations and


Spoiler



run like hell and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse are chasing you!


----------



## Nathan (Nov 13, 2009)

When life gives you lemons...grab some salt and a shot of Cuervo


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

If I had a nickel for every bad review I've received, I'd have . . . $ .35 (the equivolent to the royalties from one sale).  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## OliviaD (Jul 21, 2009)

I love the rain and a good thunderstorm (as long as the lightning doesn't strike too close to home).


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Stigma? What, stigma?   We sell ourselves, not our books. The two should ot fall far from each other. Buy my books, you buy me, and even if you wouldn;t me the true me to tread on your carpeting, make no doubt about it . . . I'll respect your furniture, but I'll clean your refrigerator out. Stigma? What stigma? The one that will keep me from your door? That and the Lowman shield won't do it, so why bother.


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Writing is the self-imposed imprisonment of ideas upon paper, in hopes that a reader will set free those ideas with the key of imagination.


----------



## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

Do what you can with what you've got. Then find a way to make it better.


----------



## William Woodall (Jun 8, 2009)

There are only three questions in life that are ever worth asking.  

1.  What is the nature of God?  
2.  What is worth living for?  and 
3.  What is worth dying for?  

And the answer to them all is the same.  Only Love.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sometimes we create the stigma. Sometimes we ignore it. We must, however, be vigilant not to fan the flames so high that we roast ourselves in the stew of our own paranoia.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## OliviaD (Jul 21, 2009)

I, too, have a photographic memory, but they are like my photos on snapfish, unlabeled and mysterious.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I have an old photocopy-machine memory and sometimes I forget to add paper, and you should see what happens when the toner runs dry.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Nathan (Nov 13, 2009)

I have a photographic memory...unfortunately its made up of 90% dirty pictures


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

When I see photographs of myself (like the one of me in an outhouse on the NQK Infinity thread) , it makes me wonder about the meaning of life and how the beauty of nature is entertwined with our every thought of love for without nature, we would be nothing and there would be no need for outhouses.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I heard a bird chirping outside while I was reading my Sunday Times, and I closed my eyes and I saw her feeding her brood in the tree that shades my porch. Then, I opened my eyes, smiled and continued to read about some volcano. Some birds fly, while today, others are grounded.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Every day I wake up above ground is a good day indeed.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Good writing is like mining: the ideas are there in the world around you, you just have to dig for them and refine them.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

If you lose enough sleep, every morning is spent in Castle Rock.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Books, like chapels or cathedrals, open their doors for reader contemplation. Of course, authors still must pass the collection plate.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

There is inspiration, there is aspiration-and then there is coffee!


----------



## altworld (Mar 11, 2010)

Do at least one thing every day that helps achieve a life goal


----------



## Nathan (Nov 13, 2009)

"wait to bump your thread until Ed posts...cause he'll push you down like a fat kid"-Ancient Chinese Proverb


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Who are calling fat? And I post eight times a day.  

ECP


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The new healthcare plan covers drool slippage, so I'm safe.    

Miss Chatty Chatsworth


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Some days are more poetic than others. Sometimes alliterative. Sometimes just onomatopoeic, especially after the beans.

Edward C. Patterson
PS: Today's alliterative, my favorite one being from W.S. Gilbert's _Yeomen of the Guard_.

"Oh, weary wives who widowhood would win, rejoice that ye have time to weary in."


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Cape Cod in the morning is a splendor to see. Feel the sun and the salt and the wink of the gulls. Sense the tide and feel the breakers and listen to the whale song. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Thank God for _Katie der Kindlespreche _ (text-to-speech). Before the Kindle, I was checking out books to learn braille. Now I can go serenely blind with Lady Kindle at my side. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Beside a tranquil stream I see myself — a doe come to sip and drink my own reflection, poured out from cups of gold, a comet soul through the starry night. It's borrowed light and now it is nothing but reflection, until you come to sip with me. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

To write is easy.  To write well is difficult.  To write well in a way that is beyond your comfort zone is well nigh impossible.


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

It is very difficult to contain the universe inside the confines of a human skull. That is why there are no _successful_ Cosmologists.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Contemplating empty chairs in empty offices can instill hope and despair. New places sing portential. Abandonned places crone the daily lives that have moved on. Of course, sadder still is sub-division and piles of computers in the suburbs of Mumbai.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Gee, Ed, it paints a picture, but kind of a downer....(an example of why I am NOT a writer.  )

Betsy


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Well I never know what I'm going to write in this thread before I open it up. And since I wrote until 2 AM and was going on 3.5 hours sleep, and faced a pile of checks to apply to my client's books, I was in a Mumbai frame of mind.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

If you let your doubts get the best of you, then you've already lost.


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

I can think of nothing more devastating than the loss of a good friend when there is nothing I can do to make it better, nothing I can say to soften the pain.  I didn't know Dona, Anju, in person, but I feel that she had a lasting impact on my life and I will always remember her.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I am so saddened by the news of Dona's passing. 

'nuff said.

Ed P


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Watching for the dawn, I feel the breath of life whisper in my ear that it is here, and another day renews itself and will so even when I am not here to hear the whisper, but to be the whisper.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Finding the groove when you're off the track is an exercise in concentration. You either lock in repeat the cycle or become unlatched and free. Each has merit, but I'm glad for earth's orbit, repetition's spendor.

Ed Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Thank God for caffeine


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Some mroning, when the body doesn;t cooperate, one gain valuable knowledge of the giant tortoise feels gazing out at the horizon. A Galapagos morning, most torpid and very Darwinian.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

May day is hay day and it's also pay day. I remember when the May Poles were set up on the Church lawn and we weaved the ribbons into a canopy of joy, and ate chicken and prayed. Seems like an age ago, but it was only 1955.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Foraging in the mind is a good Sunday activity, finding those wee mushrooms that lurk in the shadows during the week that can only be found and savored when the world is tucked away. Sunday makes truffle pigs of us all.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Often times we leave our beds to do our daily repetitions and we ignore the song that change in opon us in our hearts. Then, too late, we stop listening and march to the daily patterns until our heart sings to no longer. But in the mountains of our past, the daily repitition is our heart and we must listen, so we can we join in the morning chorus. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

The Monday through Frigay gig is a bit of a drag, but I'm through wishing for the weekend. Why wish my life away a week at a time?


----------



## OliviaD (Jul 21, 2009)

I just watched a downpour in the bright sunshine and it looked like diamonds falling all around me.  I wonder why everyone does not see the rain and the snow for the miracles they are... (notwithstanding flood victims)  What would we be without the rain?


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

Ahhh, to move or not to move.  That is the question!  I can tell that I can barely move after packing all day.  BTW, I've decided to move into Miss Olivia's backyard and do a little mining, what say?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Gravity may keep us in place, but it is gravity that we can thank for old age and decay. I guess that's why the word grave derives from it. Where did we get the word gravy, then?

Ed Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

No one is more blind than the one who only lives by what he sees with his own eyes.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Ah, the dream of fame and fortune spinning, but then the waking and the realization that the world is not a dream. Still, it is better to thrive in relative obscurity than to sink into total obscurity. Headlines are hype, but footnotes are not thrown out with the trash.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Happiness is when the chest pains subside and you find out it was last night's chili.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Some days, it's better to stay in bed and get well. Other days, it's better to get up and give 'em hell. But today, I think I'll give 'em hell, and get well.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Some days, it's better to stay in bed and get well. Other days, it's better to get up and give 'em hell. But today, I think I'll give 'em hell, and get well.
> 
> Ed Patterson


And some days it's much more fun to give your ailment to your coworkers. Feelin' the love yet?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I did that last week. I'm okay, but they're all sneezing and coughing like the Dickens. But my recouperation should be a source of hope.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

If I were a law enforcement officer, I would want to be a Texas Ranger.  If I were a military commander, I would want to be the Chief of Naval Operations.  If I were an attorney, I would want to be Attorney General of the USA.  If I were a judge, I would want to be on the Supreme Court.  And... if I were a disease, I would want to be a virus.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

In Southwestern China, near the city of Gui-lin is a village that has my heart. It is called Yang-shuo, and it is there that the fisher folk arise early while the moon still shines and leash their Cormorants and fish with birds. Whenever this life becomes too much for me, I close my eyes and drift back to the Li River and to the broken stone wharf at Yang-shuo and let the lavender mists roll over me and the mountain dawn. I am born again there. I shall end my days there.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Let's see... lawn or write?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Write about the lawn.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## NickSpalding (Apr 21, 2010)

If the entire government were killed in a freak yachting accident, how long would it take for it to actually have an effect on the country?

A day? A week? A month?

_Never_?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Looked for the muse last night and he aluded me, sexy beast that he is, only showing his face when I bring a mass of nothing into the zone and lie naked in the starlight, begging to be molested. Only then, will he come out and play - only when I have shucked my preconceived raimant and have buried my shield in the sand.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

She was the most wonderful person I knew and she cared for me as I cared for her at the end. And a day doesn't pass when I think about her or she doesn't speak to me (Both hands on the wheel - dust this place or your things shall be ruined - God is love). It's been three years, but I still remember and cherish the day she finished reading The Jade Owl and she was content because many homages were paid to her therein. She was there and is there at every turn and in every page. Her greatest dream was to travel to China and walk on the Great Wall. We walked it together and I walk it still until we meet again at the clearing at the end of the path.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

Ed,

That was remarkable.  


Sincerely,
Ricky


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

My thought for today:

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. We wouldn't be here without you.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Oh, how I long to be able to see again the full spetrum of the world before me, but it is an impossibility. However, in a world of darkness, any light is glory and sufficient enough to thank God for according it. Then I remember that I can still close my eyes and see the sharp images of a life of wonder and that I can open the eyes of others with those sights. Better to have seen and shared the vision than never to now the spectrum and squander God's gifts in the darkness.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

If angel food cake is for angels and devils food cake if for devils, then what is the correlation betwixt egg whites and Heaven and chocolate and


Spoiler



hell


.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I watched and was enthralled by the special on Whaling on PBS tonight. When Melville was read, I was literally apoplectic, mushed as if in church hearing prayers for the first time. Whenever I immerse myself in Melville's most perfect words, I come to realize just how powerful language can be - as mighty as the waves and as vast as Leviathan.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

It's good to see the faces after a night of dreaming about the faces - faces gone replaced by faces here. All part and apart vfrom the psychic cycle.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

One must refrain from the Quiche Lorraine when the cheeses clog the arterial brain.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

I'm not actually thinking on my feet, since I'm sitting on my bum.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Paranha feed in packs. Cigarettes come in packs. Troubles come in packs. So why then is the word for peace, _pax_? Such are the thoughts for Thors Day.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Ever wonder where certain phrases come from? Like "in a pig's eye." What pig? What about his eye? Does PETA know?

Poor Porky.


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

One of life's simple, underrated pleasures: getting to the office and discovering someone else has already made coffee.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The only thing on my mind this morning is an onion-sausage-bacon-cheese omelette, which will delight my palate, clog my arteries and add another layer to my belly fat. Oh, how nature conspires with gravity to bring us down, but oh, how sweet the taste of this particular brand of suicide.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

I get to spend this weekend with my daughter. She's 15, with everything that entails: boys, selfishness, moodiness, rudeness, etc. Yet I'm still looking forward to it.

Only a divorced parent looks forward to the opportunity to be abused by their kids.


----------



## Ricky Sides (Sep 16, 2009)

I don't know where I'm going, but I know how to get there.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I hear the wind in the bamboo chimes and know it exists. And yet whn it leaves, am I sad? Who can tell whether th wind is welcomed or not but those who go mad on the prairie.

Ed Patterson


----------



## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Happiness is a dry fart


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

If you make it out of bed, most of the battle for the day is won.

Ed Patterson


----------



## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

People should learn to live in the now. They spend all their time thinking about past glories and worrying about the future. Meanwhile all the moments of spontaneity and beauty they’ll ever have in their lives are flitting from future into past without being noticed. That’s why there are so many grumpy assholes in the world


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Monday, Monday - the day we complain most about, but the day that is the resurrection of our weeks I am thankful that Monday has come around again. Bring it on!!!

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Saturday night, my wife, daughter, and I returned from dinner to find a little bird on our front porch. It didn’t fly away as we approached, and we knew something was wrong. When we got closer, we noticed the poor thing was soaking wet and one of its legs stuck straight out from its body, completely useless. We wanted to help, but it didn’t want anything to do with us, hopping away as best it could on its one good leg. We didn’t know what to do. It was 10PM on a Saturday night. We decided to let nature take its course, and went inside, figuring the bird probably would not last the night.

Sunday morning, the bird was not on our porch, and we figured one of the neighborhood cats probably got it. Imagine my surprise later that day when I saw it, squawking away, on a power line fifteen or so feet up. Its leg still stuck straight out, and the poor thing must have been in tremendous pain, but that didn’t stop it from carrying on as best it could. It could still fly, and so life goes on.

It reminded me of this quote: “I never saw a wild thing feel sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.” – David Herbert Lawrence

I found this very moving. If that was me, I’d have curled up on the ground and waited for the ambulance to come and shoot me full of drugs while they took care of me. But not that little bird. What I took from that experience is this: it just isn’t in the nature of animals to give up. 

Sometimes we can learn a lot from them.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

We hang by a gossamer thread, we do. And yet, it is in the raindrops gathered at the strand's end that we peer at the world magnified. Such litttle drops can make us bigger than we are, and better than we might be as we hang by our gossamer threads and woo the moon to give up her borrowed light that we might don it as our own.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

I would have been here sooner, but I was thinking up that ham-on-rye line.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

We always need something between the bread.

Ed on Rye


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

I gotta come clean. I got nothing this morning.


----------



## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was, what he was doing. Fame? Fortune? A writer craves not these things - (to paraphrase a wee wise alien)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Fingers on the keyboard guiding the eye, waiting for the extempor spark to light the world for the day. Does anyone have a Ronson? Perhaps Lady Liberty can lend me her fiery halberd. Perhaps we should return the Promethean gift and strap on to the vulturan rock. Sounds like my fingers should keep moving until it misspells it first wird. <halt>

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

It's not true that "You can't blame a guy for trying."


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

What price can we place on _a novel _ that joins two imaginations to the exclusion of time? Is a farthing too small a token to pay for the passage? Is a King's ransom too much to cheapen the journey? _Novel _ comes from the word _new_, and with each reader, an author has the opportunity to spark the imagination a_new_, be it tomorrow's fad, today's electronic glimmer or yesterday's yellowing page. The price of continual rebirth will always be what the traffic will bear and what the imagination can hold.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Don't try to be a great author; just be an author, and let the readers make their own judgments.


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

Wisdom can be like uncut diamonds - sometimes it's hard to recognize the value at first glance.

Cheers,
Trace


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I drempt last night of someone I haven't seen or thought of in fifty years. He played the French Horn and I have no idea why I even thought of him. Yet today I see him on the stage and hear snippets of Mozart and am amazed at the tapestry of life.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Kinda wish I'd thought of something good to say on here before I went to bed.

Too late.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

For the love of sunlight, I got up this morning and greeted the day with a yawn. Still, as the joints cracked and the legs were tempered, I found it nice to be above ground on a Friday and heading for my employer of forty-five years. All this for the love of sunlight.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

Edward has such poetic thoughts.  Mine run more to the mundane side of life. I got up this morning and squinted as the sun filled my sleepless eyes painfully.  The streaming rays filtering through the drapes showed a stack of dusty boxes that had somehow managed to grow overnight.  I am quite sure that the stack was not that big when i went to bed last night. Can it be that corrugated cardboard boxes can reproduce themselves randomly and at will?  A scary thought.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Brendan Carroll said:


> Can it be that corrugated cardboard boxes can reproduce themselves randomly and at will? A scary thought.


I'm in shock. Packing crate porn.

Ed Patterson


----------



## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Did Alec Guinness ever order a Guinness? Is Brian Blessed blessed? Why do I think such things?


----------



## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

Spinal surgery. More spinal surgery. But now I'm standing tall.
Now it's laps around the mall.

All I ask is... don't shoot me!


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Today I took my 15 year old daughter to the orthodontist. While terrified that she will end up with teeth as crooked as her mother's (which are VERY crooked), you should have seen the look on her face as she flatly refused braces.

Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but few people are willing to do what it takes to get there.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I dreamed last night of houses bought and sold, and in those places were endless rooms with wondrous furnishings. But when I awoke to my artist's flat, with the manuscripts slumped on the table and last night's dishes in the sink, I felt like pulling the bell chord and calling for the maid - the pretty one with abs and a thong and deep rich velvety baitone voice, to serve me a glass of grapefruit juice (which I can't have because of the Zocor). So I close my eyes now and will dwell in my own Versailles today.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Creative freedom is best expressed wearing a firm structural girdle, and girdles are best worn out of sight. But every once in a while, the underwear should be worn as the outer layer, because freedom is in the eye of the beholder.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Some days it's OK to say "Nope. I don't feel like doing anything."


----------



## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

David McAfee said:


> Some days it's OK to say "Nope. I don't feel like doing anything."


I have a lot of those days. Way too many.

On the other hand, I'm retired from my career, so I guess it's allowed.


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

I've been thinking a lot about my Mum and Dad today, both sadly passed on, and how I had cared for my mum during her final years as she was sick with cancer.  Dad died suddenly of a heart attack, way too young.  Take the time to tell the people in your life that you love them but most of all take the time to enjoy today - tomorrow may be too late.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Fortitude is found in the softest regions of the heart.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

traceya said:


> I've been thinking a lot about my Mum and Dad today, both sadly passed on, and how I had cared for my mum during her final years as she was sick with cancer. Dad died suddenly of a heart attack, way too young. Take the time to tell the people in your life that you love them but most of all take the time to enjoy today - tomorrow may be too late.


I can relate. Neither of my parents made it out of their 40's.


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Suppose you found out that tomorrow that you would be standing before God in the afterlife Judgment.  What would you do today?


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

J Dean said:


> Suppose you found out that tomorrow that you would be standing before God in the afterlife Judgment. What would you do today?


You mean after I stopped whining about how I'm not ready?


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

J Dean said:


> Suppose you found out that tomorrow that you would be standing before God in the afterlife Judgment. What would you do today?


Honestly? Probably panic - I'm in no fit shape to meet my maker


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

J Dean said:


> Suppose you found out that tomorrow that you would be standing before God in the afterlife Judgment. What would you do today?


I stand before Her every day, and She shows me the gay and narrow runway. I take the high road.

Edward C Patterson


----------



## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

I'm beginning to think life may not be quite as bad as I always thought it was. Call me cautiously pessimistic.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The hand is a beautiful thing capable of much help and much harm. It also, like tree-rings, keeps a record of our time. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

It amazes me the things I see in my teenage daughter that remind me of the drama of my own teen years. Everything is life and death.


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

_Lost_.... Hmm....


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Yesterday we saw that bird again yeserday. Other than the leg sticking out at such an odd angle, he seemed to be doing well. Amazing.


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

R. Reed said:


> I'm beginning to think life may not be quite as bad as I always thought it was. Call me cautiously pessimistic.


I felt exactly that way myself today 
Cheers,
Trace


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Ocassionally it is appropirate to tell the establishment to pound sand and eat grass, and although it costs a minimum of one day in purgatory and perhaps an invitation to the devil's rock concert, it really feels good.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I write for one reader . . . one reader at a time. To do otherwise would be churning gold into sawdust.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

I write because I like to write. Even when I hate it.


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Perception can be twisted; reality won't budge.


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

I am a beggar who has discovered where to find bread, and want to invite all other beggars to the bakery.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When all is said and done, and all is done and said, there's nothing like a four day weekend that begins with me in bed. (I guess that's a proem).

Edward C. Patterson
I think I should get up and post the Indie Spotlights


----------



## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

J Dean said:


> Perception can be twisted; reality won't budge.


I like that.

My own thought today is that after six major surgeries on my spine, which is now held together with the medical equivalent of baling wire and chewing gum, I envy people who can stand up and walk without excruciating pain. Hopefully I'm finally there now.

Today is the start of the Memorial Day weekend, and we should all give thanks to those hundreds of thousands of Americans who died to create and defend our great republic.

Selah.

JimC


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

If I write a dog and you write a swan, my dog flies and your swan barks.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

Why is it that we are supposed to be our own best friend and yet so often, too often we end up being our own worst enemy?


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

I'm tired of hearing people say "Live every day as if it's your last."

Noble advice. Sounds good. But it's not possible.

Think about it: if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, would you go to work today? I wouldn't. After I stopped swearing at how unfair it was, I'd probably spend the day eating ice cream with my family.

Doing that every day is a good way to get fired.

Now, what people _should_ say is "Appreciate every day as if it's your last." That makes more sense. So of course I expect all of you to get right on it.

Me? I'm going to get some ice cream...


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I like tutti-frutti.

Ed Patterson
(You are what you eat)


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I like tutti-frutti.
> 
> Ed Patterson
> (You are what you eat)


you must eat a lotta nuts. (heh heh)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

David McAfee said:


> you must eat a lotta nuts. (heh heh)


Now le


Spoiler



t's leave my boyfriends out of this


.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Now le
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


OK, I just snorted cola all over my wall.


----------



## WAPatterson (Mar 26, 2010)

Panic Attacks are the brain's way of throwing up a BSOD*, like it's saying to me: "Hey, Buddy, you're gonna burn me out if you keep crossin' wires like that, and I'm gonna make you pass out because you pissed me off!"

*Blue Screen Of Death on Windows.

W. A. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Hey ,we can have an attack of the Pattersons.  

But all kidding aside, and to remain on topic:

The fundamental things we learn at our mother's knee are the things that echo in our mind and heart when the census take comes knocking at the door.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sunday morning again with the careless fall of feet over the side of the bed. Delightful to my ear along with the distant sound running water and the soft sounds of shaving, his humming before making the coffee. Steam in the aftermath.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

Why is it that human beings find the color blue when related to food and drink to be exotic?  Is not the entirety of God's canopy adorned in such a color?  Should not all things blue be good?  Blueberries? Bleu cheese? Blue cotton candy? Blue snowcones?  Blue margaritas?  Oy! Oy! Arriba!  Have a wonderful holiday and do not forget that the color of the Airforce uniform is blue and there is nothing better than remembering the Air Force and all that it has done to keep our nation free.  I have seen the 'holiday' menus of our enemies and there is nothing blue on it!  Thank you to all our men and women in green, brown, blue and khaki wherever they may be!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Amen


----------



## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Death stalks us all, never more than a breath away, as close as the next heartbeat, thirsty and ravenous. I find that whistling out of tune helps.


----------



## J.M Pierce (May 13, 2010)

A dream that is reached for, no matter the odds or distance to success, is more honorable even in failure than one dismissed after weighing the odds. Odds are life will be too short for most of us anyway. Why not go for it?

J.M.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

As we go to the mall and relinquish our wherewhithal to the bargains of this day, remember those who have fallen to keep the mall doors open and the terrorists at bay.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The only thing in this world that cannot tolerate is intolerance.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

May is out, June is in. Summer's a'comin'.

(If you live in TN, like me, summer's been here for a while now)


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

David McAfee said:


> May is out, June is in. Summer's a'comin'.
> 
> (If you live in TN, like me, summer's been here for a while now)


It's actually the first day of Winter Down Under & coincidentally my all-time favourite season. So I'll be all rugged up in my snuggle blankets, watching old episodes of Solved or Criminal Behaviour [two of my fav shows] with my dog at my feet and my cats curled up beside me with my husband bringing me hot chocolate..... Aaaah, if only that were true 

Cheers,
Trace


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The mist was so thick this morning, I thought the Mr. King had designed it and that my journey to work would end in a supermarket in Maine.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> The mist was so thick this morning, I thought the Mr. King had designed it and that my journey to work would end in a supermarket in Maine.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


You really crack me up sometimes Ed.  LOL
Trace


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Dark day here... sometimes, those are the best days to write.  God is giving me an excuse to not work in the garden (I hope )


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> The mist was so thick this morning, I thought the Mr. King had designed it and that my journey to work would end in a supermarket in Maine.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


Make sure you're packing heat.


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

traceya said:


> It's actually the first day of Winter Down Under & coincidentally my all-time favourite season. So I'll be all rugged up in my snuggle blankets, watching old episodes of Solved or Criminal Behaviour [two of my fav shows] with my dog at my feet and my cats curled up beside me with my husband bringing me hot chocolate..... Aaaah, if only that were true
> 
> Cheers,
> Trace


Ah yes. While it's warming up here, it's cooling down Down Under. Seems so odd to me that you guys have Christmas in the summer.  I want to come visit.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

traceya said:


> You really crack me up sometimes Ed.  LOL
> Trace


Thanks. Life witjhout humor is like a novel without humor (or poetry or poetic license - which I just renewed in NJ).

Ed Patterson


----------



## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> ... poetic license - which I just renewed in NJ.


Damn, Ed, I've been trying to get one of those licenses for years. You can't get them in Georgia.


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

David McAfee said:


> Ah yes. While it's warming up here, it's cooling down Down Under. Seems so odd to me that you guys have Christmas in the summer.  I want to come visit.


You think Christmas in summer is odd - try roasting a turkey while it's nearly 40 degrees [that's our version, I don't know how to convert to yours]

Come visit anyway - I won't cook you a turkey though 
Trace


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Fire grows in my spirit today as I have suddenly feel my young self overcome you old self. Can any good come from it? Others will tell. I'm to spitten with the spirit to care.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

Birds sing because they can with no thought to who might hear.... I hear their song and it touches my heart.


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

traceya said:


> You think Christmas in summer is odd - *try roasting a turkey while it's nearly* 40 degrees [that's our version, I don't know how to convert to yours]
> 
> Come visit anyway - I won't cook you a turkey though
> Trace


Me? Roast a turkey? I can barely boil water.


----------



## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

traceya said:


> You think Christmas in summer is odd - try roasting a turkey while it's nearly 40 degrees [that's our version, I don't know how to convert to yours]


40 C is 104 F. That's H-O-T!


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

JimC1946 said:


> 40 C is 104 F. That's H-O-T!


Hmmmm....

H, O, and T. I know that spells _some_thing... Ummm.... don't tell me! I'll get it....


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

June is always a month that defines us at our zenith. But too much sun can spoil the lobster pot.

Edward C. atterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Stupid thoughts... cost you your conscience
Stupid actions... cost you your reputation
Grace and forgiveness... priceless.


----------



## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

Life is stupid and meaningless, but at least there's chocolate.


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

R. Reed said:


> Life is stupid and meaningless, but at least there's chocolate.


mmmmmmm.............chocolate....*drool*


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I love to think at the origin of words, perhaps because the etymology of words in Chinese characters can be seen. Sometimes in western tongues you need to delve a bit, but I love the animal derived words such as vaccine, vacate and vacation from cows (_vaca _ and the milking process) and porcelain (from pigs - _porca _ - for their shiny hinies). It would be nice to say, instead of

_ I went on vacation and bought a lovely piece of porcelain _ -

_While I was a-milking, I acquired a shiny pig's


Spoiler



ass.


 _ 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J.M Pierce (May 13, 2010)

J Dean said:


> Stupid thoughts... cost you your conscience
> Stupid actions... cost you your reputation
> Grace and forgiveness... priceless.


***pointing at the computer screen and shaking head incessantly***

YES!!!!!!!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Wealth is measured by the quality of our hearts and thoughts, not the pennies in our piggy banks.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Wealth is measured by the qualoty of our hearts and thoughts, not the *pennies* in our piggy banks.


A penny for the thought.


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Wealth is measured by the qualoty of our hearts and thoughts, not the pennies in our piggy banks.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


That was always my Dad's number one saying and my Mum would be right there to back him up with her all time favourite -
"It doesn't matter if you're rich/beautiful/talented - it only matters that you be a decent human being."

I miss them both 

Feeling a bit sombre today,
Trace


----------



## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

traceya said:


> I miss them both
> 
> Feeling a bit sombre today,


I know what you mean. My mom died a year ago last week. It still hurts.


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Neither of my parents made it out of their 40's. Mom died in '86 at 41. Dad in '93 at 48. I miss them both, no matter how many years pass.

I miss them even more now that Heather is pregnant.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Tracy:

My Mom passed away three years ago November, at Thanksgiving (which makes it really hard). She got to read and touch my first published book (not on Kindle or Amazon, but on-line), and I'm thankful for that, because she was my China Hand and touches my heart every single day, because she comes up with the sun.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

As an author I am fishing in my reader's imagination, which wider than all the seven seas.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Mortality, like gravity, is ever present and ever devouring, but a good heart survives them both.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Morality is also subjective.

Different cultures have different moralities.


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Ed spoke of "mor*t*ality". . . . . David talked of "morality". . . . .probably a philosophical truth in there somewhere. . . . . .


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Ed was also mixing metaphors like a bad boy, _morality _ being philosophical and _gravity _ being physical, but such is the woeful web we weave when winging it in the wind. (w is my favorite alliterative).

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Life stimulates the imagination.  Television ruins it.


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

And David McAfee needs to learn to read. A bad thing for an author...


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The only thing that exhausts me in writing is a discussion on pricing. It's like a union meeting at the bordello, but


Spoiler



whores


 don't charge, do they? 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

Today the sun was shining, the coffee was superb, the company even better and the words are flowing like a river.... it doesn't get better than that


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Yesterday at dusk I sat in the yard and watched the fireflies and the bats for almost an hour.

I love this time of year. Even time wasted can be time well spent.


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Ever wonder why those automated automobile voices say "the door is a jar"?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Stretch your hands across the borders and welcome those who would be your future; who are your past. Taking your turn in the sun is borrowing heaven's bounty. Denying it to others is stealing the Helion steeds and flying on Icarusian wings. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Sure, softball is just a game, and I play for fun.

But for some reason, it's more fun when we win.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

They say that being extolled is a corruption worse than death, but if you want to experience a degree below zero, try being Pariah.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

We have 3 dogs. Every morning we put the same food in 3 bowls. For some reason, all 3 dogs always think the food in the other two bowls is better than/different than the food in their bowl. They end up doing a weird _Musical Food Bowl_ dance where they just keep switching off. I need to record it and put it on YouTube someday.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Most people on Earth do not have a weekend. In China, you work a 6 day week and the day off is a random selection within the population sample. TGI Friday's would be PGY Myday (Praise Guan-yin its My Day).  

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Can one review, even if it's an overall good review, kill your book?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The walls we build are the ones we hide behind, the ones that hide us and the ones that others destroy. The wells we dig are those we lavish, those we dole and those we share in baptism. The wills we leave are the ones never read, the ones kept cold in the heats of others and the legacy that attests to our living, whether we are were wall builders or well diggers. The rest is wind.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Saturday mornings are for sleeping in.

So what was I up at 7am?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

7? It's 10:30 here?  

E Patterson
a well digger


----------



## A_J_Lath (Jun 6, 2010)

Wisdom - by the time you get it, it's usually too late to do anything with it.


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

It's about 12 degrees [Celsius], I'm wearing so many layers I look like the Stay Puft marshmallow man from Ghostbusters, my aching fingers are begging for release yet still I write - why? To please myself, to please my unknown readers - or just to get the stories out of my head? Who knows yet write I do.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

If there has been one thing steady in my life it has been Hellman's Real Mayonnaise (Best Food's for those east of the Mississippi). It was a touchstone and quite different than Kraft or Duke's or the kind Julia Childs whipped up. Now I've tasted Hellman's Mayonnaise with Olive Oil and I've become an extra virgin. My life has changed and shall never be the same.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Flag Day, and the banners flap to remind us that despite the ups and downs, our downs are far better than most of the world's ups.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Back to the 9-5 on a Monday morning. But some nice people here in the Book Bazaar have already made my day.


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Flag Day, and the banners flap to remind us that despite the ups and downs, our downs are far better than most of the world's ups.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


Also my son's birthday and. . . .I need to take our old damaged flag over to the American Legion for proper disposal. . . . . .


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Every so often we get the opportunity to take advantage of the world that is our bread and butter and think we have an invitation to the Great Gatsby's summer bash. But because greed is its own deadly sin, although butter would melt on our tongues, our franchises turn to toast, scaped by our lack of conscience. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Just stopped here today, for a Cafe Ole, and it's so sweet, I'd say that I think I'll stay.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

I like the Writer's Cafe.  Nice place to visit. If you can put up with the writers...


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Today I think I'll use ther word _antidiluvian_ in a sentence when I order my morning ****** cheese omellete. I wonder if Dolores, the short-order cook, will throw something at me thinking I might have called her something bad, when all I would be noting is the condition of her grill.  Maybe I should just look into her eyes and use the word _pellucid_.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Today I think I'll use ther word _antidiluvian_ in a sentence when I order my morning ****** cheese omellete. I wonder if Dolores, the short-order cook, will throw something at me thinking I might have called her something bad, when all I would be noting is the condition of her grill.  Maybe I should just look into her eyes and use the word _pellucid_.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


I followed all of this until you used the word "thinking." What the heck does that mean?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I haven't given it much thought.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Walking on millenium-old stairs to the River Li's margin in the rain with nothing but a bamboo _san-tze _ to keep my head dry as the skiffs under the lanterns haul carp ashore now that the cormorants flap themselves dry, I sigh serenely thanking Guan-yin that I can be at Yang-shuo every waking morning of my life.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

God has a sense of humor and I'm laughing with Him.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Readers hold my heart in their hands, my soul in their opinion and my mind in their imaginations. Beyond that, I am nothing.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

There are no buses in Yang-shuo. Only water taxis and your feet, and if you're lucky, a non-recalcitrant mule. It's hard to leave there, thank God.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> There are no buses in Yang-shuo. Only water taxis and your feet, and if you're lucky, a non-recalcitrant mule. It's hard to leave there, thank God.
> 
> Ed Patterson


What is a water taxi? Is it like a gondola in Venice?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

David McAfee said:


> What is a water taxi? Is it like a gondola in Venice?


Actually, in China on the Li River, it's either a 5 log skiff or a vessel that's reminiscent of _the African Queen_. If you want to get a crowd of cormorant fisherman laughing, just say _Nar li gung gung ch'e chuo de chang ma?_ (Where's the bus stop?) They'll point up at heaven (_t'ien_) and laugh.

Here's a pic I took in '85








Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Gorgeous pic, Ed. 

I'm putting that village on my Bucket List.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Tuesdays is _Dues day _ (Dienstag) in Germany because we must all pay the piper to get rid of the rats.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The relationship of one word to another, like the relationship between one letter and another, forms a bond in the human mind. It's the old story of whether the notes on a page of music are more important than the space between them — where all harmony and dissonance dwells.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Eventhough I thank God daily for whatever eyesight is still accorded to me, I sorely miss seeing the world pristine. Now it's a 3D movie without the 3D glasses. But some have only their inner light for a guide, so there's something glorious still in the future.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

I'm going to try very hard over the next 7 1/2 months not to get annoyingly cute with baby speak, but that little heart thumping away in a being the size of a Tic Tac has got to be one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

OK. Done with baby glowy stuff. For now.


----------



## vidhya.t (Apr 16, 2010)

It is better to not get what you wished for, thank to regret getting what u wished for.  



Vidhya


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

A cluttered desk reflects an orderly mind. When the mind is cluttered, the desk is free of the evidence.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Hair long. Hair short. Hair black. Hair bleached (and spiked). How different the attitudes that sport the two. And yet I am going from one to the other today as sure as the sun rises and winter turns to spring.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sum sae that the luv of werds is the pashion fer thoze hu kneed two git a leif, butt Eye sae, werds kan bee a tru lifte fer peeple in kneed ov pashion.  

Etweird See Patisin

ingage the reeder


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Go grab some coffee, Ed. We'll wait.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Coffee drank - 120 miles driven and I'll restate:

Some say that the love of words is a passion for those who need to get a life. I say, words can be a true lift for people in need of passion.

Edward C. Patterson

engage the reader


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Leave the $ .99 on the headstone. I'll count it at the resurrection.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Leave the headstone. I'll use it before the ressurection.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

You can't take it with you, but you leave something behind.

Edward C. Patterson
If you bury a cash register, will it sprout a cash registry tree. Perhaps, a bush.


----------



## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

I sometimes wonder about the word ubiquitous.  I'm not sure what it means, but I see it all the time.  Everywhere I look, there it is.


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> You can't take it with you, but you leave something behind.


Yup. An indentation in the earth where they stuck your box.

Oh, wait...I'm gonna be cremated...


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Then you better price at $1.00. The Chinese burn paper to send greetings to the ancestors. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

I shall send no book out into this world until it's ready to kick ass! - Paul Clayton

WHITE SEED: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke


----------



## Sean Sweeney (Apr 17, 2010)

Leave the headstone. I'll whack people off the head with it after the ressurrection.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

To a younger man in a younger day, I felt wiser and older then — not strapped to the eternal wheel and my only worry being the chase. Now that the green grass is hay, I look back at those times and wonder what the hell happened in the intervening years and be thankful that the wheel is not eternal.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Bridget S (May 23, 2010)

I can take a nap when I'm dead.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I often wonder about the Lemming and their blind leap into the sea. They say it's chemical, but at least they aren't being led there. Nature is a puzzlement, but I guess the world needs its annual Lemming-cleansing.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

With a ring and index finger of equal length, I have the gay man's hand, which they now say is formed by hormonal changes in the third tri-mester with Mama Mia. Gee, I'm glad Hitler didn;t know this, or he would have slaughter an additional half million of us, who wore the pink triangles.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Never heard of "gay man's hand." Is that a real thing or are you just...you know...being you?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

David McAfee said:


> Never heard of "gay man's hand." Is that a real thing or are you just...you know...being you?


Real thing (although there's controversy) and when it is demonstrated, you shuyld see all the men in the room compare hands. Here's one of many links on it.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070824155132AA385Iq

Ed Patterson
BTW, I know many "straight" men that fit the category, but every gay man I know absolutely does, which makes one wonder is gaydar is obsolete or we might need to make more room in the closet.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

We are on the brink of the one day a year we celebrate our freedoms. Of course, in many places they have only one day a year that affords them freedom and that day is usually their last. Sing loud and clear and make sure the shackled hear.

Edward C. Patterson
Words will set you free


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sleeping until 10 is a pretty indulgence, but this morning it was a gift from God, because I drempt in technicolor and remembered it all for use on the human page. Come dream with me.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Let freedom ring, because it was wrung from tyranny and tea. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

It's the fourth and I've had what, five... six beers, four burgers, and it's a hundred and ten and the air conditioner's on the fritz and I haven't finished that post I promised John... Am I really a writer if I just veg... Let me get another beer and ponder that.

WHITE SEED: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

It's fun to change words to shatter common concepts. I sometimes announce that I eat orchids, munch on rocks and drink beans. Vanilla, salt and coffee.   But never together, although vanilla is nice in coffee and common concepts are best left to those who think the capital of Peru is a . . . bean.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I find that being an Indie author sometimes is fraught with identity crisis given definitions that are cast to the wind every day. However, being born is not easy. Then again, I've been through a tougher emergence when I kicked upon the closet door and flew out like a Murphy bed. I am who I am, I write what I write and misspell in public like a fart in the wind. Roman physicians advised that we let it out or do ourselves a serious iunjury. Ah, the ancients were so much wiser.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J.M Pierce (May 13, 2010)

A breath is a waste of time unless you are committed to making the next word it fuels meaningful and positive.


----------



## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

If you just thougth of a really great plot for a novel, somebody's already writing it and will upload it to Kindle tonight.  Better to be a performance artist!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Let them write their plots. I wouldn't be caught dead with one of them thar' things. Well, I guess in the end I will be caught dead *in * one of them thar things. But the only good plot is Jim Morrisons'.

Ed Patterson
Striving for art without a touch of plot or outlining in it.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Softly comes the morning, slipping through the heat, promising a day in the spending of a myriad of lives. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I often listen to what most people ignore - the complaints of the young, sthe reminiscence of the old and complete absence of meaning with almost everthing in-between. It sound synical, but actually there's beauty in the cave dwellers endless hum, something relatable in the mind and translatable to the written page.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## G.L. Douglas (Jun 27, 2010)

_Always look for the gift hidden in the circumstance._


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Charles Dickens came to be in a dream last night and gave me permission to dangle my participles.   Thanks, Chuck, because Jane Austen is due in tonight to teach me how to universally acknowledge everything.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Foraging in the forest of my kitchen, I find a lone muffin that isn't host to fur, and I run to butter it before it succumbs to the invisible world. Better my bacteria in my acidic bun chamber than a kitchen forest's conversion to penicillin. But alas, everything organic reduces to a Petri dish.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

To Ed and all the others who post to this thread:
Some have made me laugh, some have touched my heart, but all have made me think. 

Thank You.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Intinst:

I'm glad, because sometimes I wonder whether anyone reads these. In spite of that, I do one a day to check to see if my mind can still tap dance on the head of a pin. On most day,s I let my fingers just type something, then I shape the "extempor" into a "thought," and on some days, that thought scares the bejeepers outa me.  

Thanks again

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sometimes we author a thousand works and watch them sink on the open see, and then we pen one work, and no more, and watch it kill a mockingbird. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I sitting at my desk at work staring at a calendar image of Macchu Pichu and wondering whether the ancient inhabitants ever starred out one of their windows and imagine that their time would be shattered. Ironicically their city graces my calendar long after theirs has expired.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Taking sure steps means accounting for the ground about you and then closing your eyes. If you don't fall thrugh the ground, you take another.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Sometimes you have to sit back, take a long hard look at life, and ask yourself how Ed finds time to write between all the other stuff he does.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Time is all we have in life. Anything above that is . . . above that.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, fortifying your first steps and your continuance to lunch, when it supecedes the proteins with a healthy blanket of carbohydrates and antelope food. By dinnertime, we can just about swallow water. Ah, how like the menu is to life, when the meals supercede each other to the last drink of water.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

If diamonds are pressurized coal, why didn't Santa fill my stocking with it. _Illegitimi non carborundum._

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

I take issue with the title of this thread. It says "Authors, Thinking on their Feet" but most of the time when I am reading this thread or typing in it I'm sitting on my


Spoiler



ass.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When you want to known my throughts, better to ask my feet than rely on those twin orbs of cushiony comfort. It's the difference between podiadigital logic and just a plain old wise crack.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Car's broke, rent's due, baby needs milk... I should get a real job. Wait... after I finish this chapter.

WHITE SEED: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke


----------



## terryr (Apr 24, 2010)

David McAfee]
I take issue with the title of this thread. It says "Authors said:


> When you want to known my throughts, better to ask my feet than rely on those twin orbs of cushiony comfort. It's the difference between podiadigital logic and just a plain old wise crack.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


















Oh... the inspired remarks I can come up with for that. I shall restrain myself and instead simply sit back on me own arse and applaud...


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Letting go is a good thing - a cleansing thing to clear out the cobwebs and make room for life's more current refuse. That's why the word _vacation _ is derived from _milking cows _ (vaca).  Clear out and drink up.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Caribou are reindeers on Quaaludes.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The early bird specials for senior citizens is not a marketing ploy. It's a welcomed doff to time and biology.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The Cherokee call our written language _go-we-li_ - _leaves_ and devised our syllabary because we saw that the _U-na-ka _ (white folk) had a language that is more powerful because it could travel beyond the tongue. So the language is referred to as _go we-li e-di-le-do-hv u-no-le _ _leaves on the wind_.

Edward C. Patterson 
_Nv-wo-di A-gi-lv-s-gi_


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I'm so hungry today I think I shall have a _trigger _ omelette on a bun with a side order of Moose, which I should really refutiate. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sometimes societal discimination shows up in the analysis of a mother tongue. For example, when analyzing the Chinese character for peace (_an_), it's a woman under a roof, which implies that a woman in the house is a state of peace. But if that isn't Chauvinistic enough, ask any Chinese man and he'll tell you that a woman in the house is a woman off the streets, which is . . . (I kid you not).

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Linda S. Prather Author (Jun 25, 2010)

Today is an opportunity to put the darkness and pain of yesterday behind me, and stride confidently into the love, light and laughter of all tomorrows.


----------



## Nell Gavin (Jul 3, 2010)

When I spew, it's usually in limericks. I can write them on demand.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

In the world of opinions, there is room for both the right one and the wrong one — that is mine and any other.   

Edward C. Patterson
(I didn;t say which was which)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Dunes drift because they are fragmented and defined by the undefineable.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

"I told you so" has a brother. His name is "Shut the hell up."


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Television cultivates dandelion minds. Needy, weedy and gone to seedy.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Virtue is a garment best worn as underwear, where it can afford a secure last defense against the assault of temptation's gown.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I just extempored on a thread on $ .99 pricing where the statement was something about $ .99 = poor quality. Thought I'd extempore it here also:

Human perception seperates the wheat from the chaff, and leaves only boll weevils.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

While we balk at some culture that eat bugs, they balk at us because we eat eggs. Stick to spinach and grow big muskels.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I am fortunate to have served my country, but also to have shared the experience of what our brave men and women face daily overseas. Although there is a deep comraderie (deep because your lives depend on each other, but also your sanity). I have many memories of that time and see faces long gone home and aged, I bet. But its a point frozen in time. Its a source of inspritation, regret and buoyancy. It was a well destined for literary treatment.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

There was a time it took a month before a death notice traversed the world. Now the obituaries are published the day before to save time.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

You were in the military Ed? Was that before "Don't ask, don't tell" came around? That must have been rough!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Yes. Surviving an American Gulag is my memoir of the experience.

Ed Patterson


----------



## bluefrog (Apr 6, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Yes. Surviving an American Gulag is my memoir of the experience.


And everyone should go read it, because it is an awesome book.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

bluefrog said:


> And everyone should go read it, because it is an awesome book.


Thank you. I try. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

It's a nice feeling to have a stranger a good service. One might say that a life built with such bricks leaves skyscrapers as a legacy. Let us hope to be surrounded by such city skylines.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Yes. Surviving an American Gulag is my memoir of the experience.
> 
> Ed Patterson


I didn't realize it was a memoir. I'm adding it to my TBR list.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Thanks. Enjoy.

Roman a clef, really.

Ed patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When alone and in the dark, you can't live on _gan _ and *ch'u duo-duo*.

Ed Patterson

note: _gan _ is mandarin for licorice and _ch'u duo-duo _ are Chips Ahoy.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When we tear cathedrals down, it make a difference whether we are inside or not.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Fresh month and, as I look out over the edge of the page, I see another thousand readers to woo to the edge of my imagination.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Love me, love my Kindle.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When we step into a supermarket, we should not be looking for bargains. We should be wondering if the place was gone whether we could catch our own chickens and grow our own pole beans. While most of the plane feeds itslef, we are feed by caravans of trucks.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

While Boston is full of beans and New York full of sglitter (smog+glitter), give me San Francisco, because its so full of itself.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> While Boston is full of beans and New York full of sglitter (smog+glitter), give me San Francisco, because its so full of itself.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


I thought that was Los Angeles.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

No, Los Angeles is full of . . .


Spoiler



Angels. Why what did you think I would say


. I left Washington. DC out of it, because it's one of my favorite cities, once they evacuate it. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I looked at my stapler today and recalled when we all used straight pins to clip pages together. These hands still may get paper cuts, but those pins were a menace to society. Now I stick myself with a glucose meter, but those pins are gone now. God bless Swingline.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

There is no more simpler beauty than the unrefined. Take sweet sugar. It looks like sand. It makes us sick. It generally rules our mood like heroin. But see it in a verdant field at sunrise and it radiates to the heart. It's when we've enslaved others to harvest it does its beauty dissolve.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The greatest joy of a Saturday morning is the sound of the alarm clock at 11 pm.   As for Sunday, its noon, just before my Presbyterian liturgy above the third pillow.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Thinking about my army days, 44 years ago, and remembering faces and names long gone  and times long past. I am about to start a novel about those times, in Germany and these ghosts are clarifying, telling me to "get a move on!" Keep your pants on guys, I have a few hundred pages to edit on this last one and then your turn shall come.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

It never ceases to amaze me how the large ego is so easily bruised. Mine is. With such a huge personality, we should just crush the white noise of the same old authorial issues over and over again. Either that, or pay homage to Hemmingway and end it by our own hand. It's a good thing I find humor in our need to be loved by the world, especially when the world has better things to do — like feeding itself and escaping the flood waters.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Linda S. Prather Author (Jun 25, 2010)

Children are not possessions.  They are tiny bits of clay that God gives us to help Him mold.  The best gift we can give them is to stand back sometimes and let God do the shaping.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Fire burns, but ice burns hotter.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Every evening I open the New York Times on my Kindle and weep — not about the economy or the oil spill, but I read the Names of the Dead — the young men and women listed not as a number, but by name and I see them not as some sacrifice to patriotism, but as somebody's child — somebody's spouse or parent; and I shake my head and pray for their soul and I weep, not for the uselessness of war, but for a life too soon departed from a passing friend.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Youth is blind to age's forecasted wisdom. Blind old age forgets the lost promise of youth. Between them span a basket of cast off buttons — buttons that would have kept each in sight of the other.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Last night the Earth danced with the sky through the veil of the Perseids — a cometal wink from the neighborhood ice ball. How insignificant we are  in the vastness of the Universe. Even Google is a giggle iin the gigamite of the gargantuan.

Edward C. Patterson
In an alliterative mood.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Writing is the best cure for all ills. As it is the lonely art, the outside world disappears and leaves you in better company.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

They say that the devil is in the detail, but when when writing a novel that's where the angels lurk.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The joy of giving is an unending happiness.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Although the world is as wide and our experience is long, we spend most of it confine to familiar places — a desk, a chair, a bed. How are we different than the dessert hermits? Not very.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The word cow (_vaca_) is a wonder. It gives us so many delightful words, such as _vac_cine (for the COW pocks), an e_vac_uate (for milking) and then _vaca_tion (milking latin roots), to wit - I am going on one after work today. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The promise of another day is the promise of a nother chance to help the world along.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Nothing conjures up the morning spirit than a aroma of lavender wafting over sheets. It almost beats his Old Spice or Axe.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Fiction writing gives us licence to lie, and a better pack of liars I have never known.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## William Campbell (Feb 11, 2010)

We are mere mortals. That is what makes us gods.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Variety is the breakfast of life. You waffle today, you pancake tomorrow.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

You can't take it with you—including those excess pounds about which you are always worrying.

———R. Doug Wicker


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Art serves the _crescendo _ of civilization, not the _diminuendo_.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

A person is complete when they drink their own reflection from the pool.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Avatar is back in the cineplex. Pippa passes and all's right with the world. Frodo lives.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Pots and pans are a bachelor's bane. Call it frozen. Call it nuked.  

Edward C. Patterson
The Bachelorette


----------



## Guest (Aug 28, 2010)

A lot of things in life can prick you, but remember, its allways the rose that makes the thorn.  It's never the other way around.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

While watching the sparrows dot my lawn this morning, I had thoughts of Donna.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

For those of us who have a passion for good food, I give you Betolli + a Microwave. Who said _good _ couldnt be _fast_?

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

No matter what an air traffic controller does, they almost never frappin' hit.

--R. Doug Wicker

Drake's Paradox of Air Fares states: "First class passengers pay extra for the privilege of being first to arrive at the scene of the crash." A corollary to Drake's Paradox is that business class passengers pay slightly less to arrive second.

--R. Doug Wicker

The difference between piloting and controlling is: When a pilot makes a mistake, the pilot dies. When a controller makes a mistake, the pilot dies.

--Unknown


----------



## Guest (Aug 30, 2010)

R. Doug said:


> No matter what an air traffic controller does, they almost never frappin' hit.
> 
> --R. Doug Wicker
> 
> ...


My uncle teaches at the ATC school at the airport in OKC. I get it!


----------



## Guest (Aug 30, 2010)

"While swimming in a pond full of sharks, its generaly best to be the Orca!"


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

So another month passes, but not really. Nature knows where it stands without our need to measure. Although we have seen 2 Ceasar passing fine in the Summer, the old seventh month comes up know, but in China only 8 moons have phased, and on Mercury, none.    The beavers don;t ask permission to molt nor do the trees, their leaves to shed. They just do it.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## William Campbell (Feb 11, 2010)

We're all insane. The difference is, people who get locked up lack skill at managing it.


----------



## Guest (Sep 1, 2010)

William Campbell said:


> We're all insane. The difference is, people who get locked up lack skill at managing it.


Sir, 
People who get locked up have the advantage of reflection, deep and untainted by commercialism, and the dreary main stream sheep herd oriented media input. People who have been locked up and used their time wisely learn skills that are not available to the rest of the busy world. They read your pages by the hundreds. People who get locked up are the ones who are bold, who get written about, the pirates and scally wags who take the maidens captive. The thief in the night, the bandit and the murderer. Bestsellers are about the insane and untimely. Not the guy in the cubicle farm. As for self controll, we are men, what self controll can we claim to have? The truth is, people get locked up usually so the county can make a dime. Few of the people clogging our choked prison systems did anything to hurt anybody. Self controll has little to do with it. Its all about cash! Just ask any lawyer.

just sayin......

PS More books were sold to US prisons last year through sevices like amazon than nearly any other vendor.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

History repeats itself; and so do cucumbers.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Guest (Sep 1, 2010)

They say that the definition of insane is when one keeps repeating the same action over and over again hoping for a different result.  If this is true then History is insane.


----------



## William Campbell (Feb 11, 2010)

M.R. Mathias said:


> .... Self control has little to do with it. Its all about cash! Just ask any lawyer.
> 
> just sayin......


All well said. Perhaps it's the cash that's driving us insane. (GRIN)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

M.R. Mathias said:


> They say that the definition of insane is when one keeps repeating the same action over and over again hoping for a different result. If this is true then History is insane.


And so are cucumbers.


----------



## William Campbell (Feb 11, 2010)

Our history of insane cucumbers has me wondering if this reality is just a dream. Nah, maybe not after all. I wouldn't dream a dream with lawyers in it.


----------



## Guest (Sep 1, 2010)

William Campbell said:


> Our history of insane cucumbers has me wondering if this reality is just a dream. Nah, maybe not after all. I wouldn't dream a dream with lawyers in it.


lol


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

William Campbell said:


> Our history of insane cucumbers has me wondering if this reality is just a dream. Nah, maybe not after all. I wouldn't dream a dream with lawyers in it.


I don't know. Perhaps we should consult Chuang-tzu. 

Edward C. of the Tao Patterson


----------



## Guest (Sep 1, 2010)

Which book starts the Jade Owl sreies?


----------



## William Campbell (Feb 11, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I don't know. Perhaps we should consult Chuang-tzu.


He'd probably just say I'm a butterfly. Or a butterfly dreamt it was me.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Well, he called me Butterfly and I obliged and sang _Un bel di vedremo_. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## William Campbell (Feb 11, 2010)

No fair. No one serenaded me.


----------



## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

History is just nature's way of telling you what you'll be doing wrong in the future.

——R. Doug Wicker


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

After sitting in a three hour traffic jam this morning starring at the rump of a Singer Food Service truck, the more I approeciate the panorama of the Arno Valley overlooked from the hill at Fiesole.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Budo von Stahl (Aug 31, 2010)

From works of Science, we learn about the world around us; from good works of Fiction, we should learn something about ourselves. --Braga, quoting _The Loremaster's Creed_


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The Roman Senate opposed dictators, but Ceasar had his Gaul.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Budo von Stahl (Aug 31, 2010)

The tragedies of the past are the future of the ignorant.--Braga, quoting _The Loremaster's Creed_


----------



## Guest (Sep 3, 2010)

*Evil geniuses for a better tomorrow!*


----------



## Budo von Stahl (Aug 31, 2010)

M.R. Mathias said:


> *Evil geniuses for a better tomorrow!*


Evil will always triumph because good is dumb. (Do I really need to credit this one?)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When I think of such things as the unemployment figure, the undocumented immigrant issue and the celebration of Labor Day, I think of my grandmother and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that she raised during her lifetime to put shoes on migrant worker children's feet. I think of the angry complainers vs. the guardian angels. It's the difference between the cave dwellers and the meadow larks.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Guest (Sep 4, 2010)

Its never the method, its the motive and the outcome that matter.  Thus the devisation of natural events like floods and hurricanes brings about times of hope and rebuilding. Just as war brings about peace.


----------



## Budo von Stahl (Aug 31, 2010)

You can't dominate an educated populace; you can't intimidate an armed one.--Volkang og Leed, Warden of the Alamite Remnant


----------



## Guest (Sep 5, 2010)

Budo von Stahl said:


> You can't dominate an educated populace; you can't intimidate an armed one.--Volkang og Leed, Warden of the Alamite Remnant


But you can intimidate an educated populace with an armed one.  lol... My weapon is my pen (Not a keyboard!) and it is mightier than a sword!


----------



## Budo von Stahl (Aug 31, 2010)

Parry!  Thrust!  Riposte!  Oww, I hurt myself.  Paper cut.


----------



## Guest (Sep 5, 2010)

Budo von Stahl said:


> Parry! Thrust! Riposte! Oww, I hurt myself. Paper cut.


LMAO


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The old Emperor wept as he thought of his sacrificed concubine. Siuch is the song of unending sorrow that I hear through my window at dawn even after thirteen hundred years.

Edward C. Patterson
inspired this morning by the romance of Emperor Xuan of the T'ang and his great love for Yang Kuei-fei.


----------



## Vianka Van Bokkem (Aug 26, 2010)

"Unhappy people need your smile more than happy people do"

- Vianka Van Bokkem


----------



## Budo von Stahl (Aug 31, 2010)

M.R. Mathias said:


> LMAO


Stob laubig ad heb be bind by doze.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Never regret a life path not taken. If taken you could very well be dead by now.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Budo von Stahl (Aug 31, 2010)

Any act of torture demeans the perpetrator and ennobles the victim; neither of you is deserving.--Valkane, quoting an unnamed Rhudlish novel.

I think I'm falling into the snippets trap, but an extemporaneous thought for me would simply be an uncredited quote from one of my characters, published or forthcoming.  I'll just stop giving credit now that everyone knows where to find them.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I've been often asked if, as a writer, I get _writer's block_. To that I say, _no _ - because I'm an author and my imagination has innoculated me against such excuses. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Budo von Stahl (Aug 31, 2010)

Q: What's the point?
A: The end you write with.


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

To write or not to write... For me there is no question, no option.  For to not write would be to not be as zero is to nothing.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Xenophobia is an interesting word. It means a fear of strangers and has always led to the worst and basal actions of our species. Those who embrace it mean to keep their surroundings pure, but in the end they pollute themselves and their neighbors. History will show us that witches and books were burned in Germany and China, but also in Salem and Florida. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sleep is a commodity forgone when Elijah Wood has a guest appearance at one in the morning.

Edward C. Patterson
webmaster for Elijah Wood: Performer for our Time Website


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Fire in the eyes. Ice in the veins. Dirt under the fingernails. Gas after beans. Oh, how complete we are in the four elements.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

Fire in the heart. Ayer in the brain. Feet in the earth.  Face in the rain.  How connected we are indeed, Mr. Patterson.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Brendan Carroll said:


> Fire in the heart. Ayer in the brain. Feet in the earth. Face in the rain. How connected we are indeed, Mr. Patterson.


    

One smiley for each element

Edward C. Patterson
Tarocist


----------



## Sean Sweeney (Apr 17, 2010)

So here's today's Thought for the Day, and it kinda goes hand in hand with the next book I'm going to write: 

If the conductor asked Charlie for one more nickel in Jamaica Plain, why then, when Charlie's wife went down to the Scollay Square station every day at quarter past 2, instead of handing Charlie a sandwich, did she not hand him another nickel


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Not extempore today, but a poem I wrote in the seventies and published in 1976:

*Atop the Twin Towers*​
by Edward C. Patterson

From the top of the world of man
Steel arched and graced by girder,
I see the river race,
The placid calm of the market of mammon,
Coming afar about the island's tip,
Seeking trade in cargos gold,
For precious agate, amber rare,
Through old Palmyra's gates,
Dawning over Hecatompolis.

Mighty mistress on the flow,
Raising high the towers two,
Receive the caravans of man.
Bactria sends the dragon steeds;
Silken skeins from Serica come,
Glass as precious as your steel
Weighed in balance oft' maintained
By the greatness of your name.

Honor in the holy trade
In unhampered, commerce free,
Has now come to they scepter's twain
And past unto your dynasty.​
*Note: This Poem was written in 1976 and published in the Poet*


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Critics and bedbugs have many things in common. They both suck your blood and they're difficult to get rid of. However, at least you can ignore a critic.   You're stuck with the bedbugs, although you're food for both.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Never complain about someone else's good fortune until you know how they feel about yours. Deep wells are hard to scale.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Here's something from Medicine Flower (the Cherokee in me)

_*Over the Shoulder Glancing*_

Looking backward is something I do, but I shouldn't. There's plenty to remember, good things and bad. But that which is not inside me and brought forward is perhaps best left to rest in the bowels of the past. That which moves forward with me is not in the past, but here on my journey. No need to look backward when the sun rises. Yesterday's sunrise will be much the same, and at some point, I will notice it and bring it forward to my sunset.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I was wondering about the word _mammal _ and its source. Shouldn't the species be called _booble _ instead? I mean, if we're to be guided by George Carlin's rule (may he rest in peace).

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

45 years ago yesterday, an 18 year old kid wandered into 99 Church Street, NYC (Dun & Bradstreet). He was lost and cross the threshold of the Personnel Department by pure accident. When asked by the secretary, "can I help you?" he stammered, "I need a job." And I've been here ever since. Company's names changed and I've worked in 20 different positions in ten different offices in four different states (inf\cluding California - I mean, someone had to do it), but I have managed to hold on, even through being laid off and rehired (within a week and a $50 K per year pay cut), but I'm still here. And I let none of them forget it.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Guest (Sep 16, 2010)

*FREEEEEEEEEEEEDOM! *


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

There's nothing wrong with making money from your writing as long as you say three Hail Dickens and genuflect to the Virgin Austen.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When I lose things, I generally lament, but 10 pounds gone will never be missed.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I had no extempore thoughts yesterday, but today I'm thinking of how extempoire tomorrow might be.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Wind can destroy or restore. It depends on how much of it you emit and when.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Wehn you watch your face in the mirror in its many manifestations over the years, remember that its the same face showing you the seasons as they fine tune their place within nature. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sent another child up to Amazon last night. It's alive.   With 16 books, I feel like old Mother Hubbard.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Blood work today, appropriately at the Bela Lagosi Institute for Hemotology on Mockingbird Lane.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The seasons change, but cycles never die. All things sunset, but nothing ever dies. The cycles never die. Fireflies shine like day at night. Eclipses port a night in day. Still the cycles prevail. It all goes on with or without us, before us and after us, within us and beyond us. The cycles never die.

Edward C. Patterson
a proem


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sharing takes more courage than hoarding. One takes a big heart and a willingness to let go. The other takes a big Public Storage space and the delusion that you can take it with you. Words are that was also. If you don't share them, they are gone forever. If you hoard them, the plot o'ertakes them.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

What we call work, the starfish would call creeping. What we call rest, the starfish would call crawling. What we call career, the starfish would call devouring every living creature in its creeping, crawling path. What we call conscience, the starfish would call nature, if it could call anything anything at all, dumb creature that it is. What we call the end of days, the starfish calls just a passing cloud as it will creep and crawl and devour long after the world has turned, and the thought crew has ceased thinking dumb creatures that we are.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Nietzche is dead. 
-God


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

J Dean said:


> Nietzche is dead.
> -God


  or  as the case may be.


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> or  as the case may be.


Something about your response made me think of that guy who does the "Dos Equis" commercials, Ed. The guy who says "Stay thirsty, my friends."

Not sure why.. I don't even drink beer..


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Light is a funny thing that shades us and illuminates us to others as it shifts and as they shift and you shift. Gravity serves us better.

ERdward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

This morning I drank bean juice, added a little orchid puss to it and glazed my eggs with rocks. What? Coffee, Vanilla and Salt. What did you think I meant? It's a good thing I didn't tell you what was in the cheese.  

Edward C. Patterson
An equal microbial consumer


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Roads blocked today. Floods and traffic — nature and science married to confound us like all misalignments on the path.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

To hear my Dad's voice over the phone this morning is a glorious sound. Life is good.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The muddle that we make is the muddle that we take. The muddle that we solve is the muddle that we fake.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Ten years ago, I was on the top of the world and then one morning, I awoke, sniffing the drains in the gutter with nothing to prove that I have lived. Arise, old man and sing the words electric. Today I have 3 million words swarming over 8,000 souls and, even when the drains are flushed, my mark shall linger.

Edward C. Patterson
God is my agent and the best is yet to come


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I am wearing the pink ribbon on my chest this morning and the red ribbon in my heart.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Peril stalks the heels of those disposed who hear the Pied Piper's flute and believe that the rats will abandon their quary.

Edward C. Patterson
An election time thought


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Doing one good act a day, just might get you an extra minute of life — well worth the effort.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

A warm cup of coffee and a keyboard...  that's what it's all about, you know, life.  Oh, and a donut, and maybe some juice, and there's that bear claw in the back of the fridge...  excuse me...


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Some days sharp, some days pastel, all days are worthy of some degree of artistic expression, even if it drifts under the stigma of magical premonition.

10/10/10
Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I seem to have a manila folder for everything and file them everywhere but in plain sight. Then why is there so much clutter in plain sight? It might be time to flush and sanitize.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Primitive is both an origin and a destination. We both come and go swinging on a vine.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An apple pie a day keeps the doctor in business.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Purity is a state best achieved through resurrection.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Due to a family crisis (Dad's in hospital) I haven't done the daily Extemporew post. Hope to get back on track next week.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

There are miracles in every sunrise, so why should we gove up the hope for them at sunset. Not I.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Every day we get closer to the maturist point in our life and then . . . poof.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Colleagues who set themselves up to judge the work of others for infractions in some self-induced standard are called . . . Pharisees. It takes a mighty thaw to wake them up and release them from their self-induced coma. Then they can breath the creative air of humanity and look back at their shed snake skins with scorn.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

A student declared to his teacher one day,
"Wright has not written 'rite' right, I say!"
And the teacher replied
With the blunder in her eye
"Right! Wright, write 'rite' right, right away!"

(Hope your dad is feeling better, Ed!)


----------



## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

J Dean said:


> A student declared to his teacher one day,
> "Wright has not written 'rite' right, I say!"
> And the teacher replied
> With the blunder in her eye
> ...


Reminds me of a joke:

Linguistics professor tells classroom: "In English a double negative is positive. In some languages a double negative remains negative. But in no language do two positives make a negative."

A student then said aloud from the back of the classroom: "Yeah. RIIiiight."

Ed: How is your father? Any improvement?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Thanks all for your thoughts and prayers. Dad has been up and down. Today, he's improved (pnemonia is under control and they did a kidney biopsy - nothing yet). We are waiting for surgery, but his mentation improved and that's something.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When I reach the outer margins of this world, may I have a helping and a big feather down pillow.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

"A hundred-million miracles are happening evrey day."
- Oscar Hammerstein, _Flower Drum Song_


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

No words are more precious than friends' words, which are carried in the heart and not the kindle.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

It's a hard thing when one loses the power of reason amidst the nettles of madness. Escially when that reason was more rose than thorn and gingerly aromatic. The body electric is a useless thing when the soul seeps away to oblivion and reason is trumped by disruption.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Thank you, Kinbr.

I have many fans of this thread and the Jargon thread. In fact, the Jargon thread has been shot out at the world with favorable feedback. So much so, I have planned to publish in the next year a little tome called _*A Reader's Guide to Author's Jargon and other Rantings*_. It will include my contributions to Jatgon, Extempore Thoughts, and older fun blog called* Ask Miss Chatty * (which I might start up here when my merrier mood returns) and an unpublished set of essays called _*New Leaves in the Wind: the Reovering Webaholic*_.
I might even include my reivews of Elijah Wood films.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

My hope is that I can get through the day without considering the issue of price, promotion or reviews — a moot points to daily living and lead feet to creativity.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

They say the world has seven wonders, and I agree. They're called the days of the week.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When it comes to creativity and the arts, the word BAD is a BAD work to use. Art is subjective, and although it can be criticized, its very expression is GOOD. When I hear some say BAD writers, I just think: Someone has missed the boat and doesn;t understand the basis of creativity. Perhaps its a scapegoat thing - like The South Shall Rise Again.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Thank you, Kinbr

Ed


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sometimes life, by degrees, squeezes us like lemons. But in the end, when we're nothing but pulp, puts and acid juice, we need to regard and praise the tree we fell from as an unending factory of renewal.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

House are built on foundations. So are homes. House have brick and mortar, while homes adhere to the purity of spirit. House fall and are found by the bone hunters. Homes are forever kept in God's heart and mind.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Like a crab coming to shore, the hours creep on apace until the gull get hungry or the tide fails in its rescue.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

If someone cut the electricity, could you grow a carrot, dig a well or find some moveable protein. My latest meal depended on AC/DC. Whence shall the next meal come?

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

My Dad, Donald Phillips Patterson, passed away at 2 AM this Veteran's Day. He was a WWII Veteran and my brave Cherokee warrior. He's with Mom now at the clearing at the end of the path.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## SuzanneTyrpak (Aug 10, 2010)

This must be a difficult day for you. Thanks for all you do, Edward. My thoughts will be with you today.

Suzanne


----------



## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

My deepest, heartfelt sympathies, Ed.  I am very sorry for your loss.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I want to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers during this hard time for my family. Dad was laid to rest yesterday - in style - with a full military funeral and a 21 guns salute. He laid beside Mom and is a peace. Now, because I know it is his wish, I'm getting back on the horse and refiring up my current novel project, recommencing by blogs and network posts and even some light promotion.  It might take a day or two to get back in the saddle, but I'll get there.

Thanks again for all you support.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Don't worry about the time it takes, Ed. We'll be here if you need us.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The wind blows through my soul so I can remember the day, because three years ago today, two days after committing my father to the ground, that mother passed. Now as an orphan and a good son, I face the remainder of my days without my strongest boughs. But they assured that I would have a sturdy trunk to take me through the storm. So, come on wind, give it your best shot.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Harvest is the time when we bare our souls for reaping, when the wind calls forth our experience in gold and crimson and decorates the meadows with our legacy.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

There is a beauty in all words and those who would censor or purge a single one, are guilty of palabracide — punishable by eating 900 bowls of soggy noodles without a spoon.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

I will eat this chocolate doughnut. No, I will consume. No, wait. I will engulf it. Nope. Hmm. Ah, yes. I will surround it, besiege it, and storm its carbohydrate ramparts and utterly destroy it. Yum.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sunshine on my window and life reminds that Wolly Mammoths once cast their shadows here. Now they live at three dollars a gallon at the pump. Sunshine on my window and the cycle is complete.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

To those who would be a world wonder: Remember, you'll either be a ruin or a distant memory. To those who would be a star: Remember, you're defined by the mass of your gas. To those who would be a dynamo: Remember, you're in a container and depend on vaccilation. Better to be what you are and nothing more. Nothing to remember except the last step taken and the next upon the path.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

If ever there was a person thankful for the shoulders of many, I arise this morning to the light and thank the creator for each and all.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Fires burn in many places beside the forests and battlefields of the world. Fire ignites the soul and the heart and the mind and can consume the spirit and health until there's nothing remaining but the embers of remembrance. With care we must light our lanterns with an eye on the conflagration.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

To the men who would go to sea in ships, and to those who would go in books alone, I say, come to my side and be my guide, because in the dark we scribe your soul in the candlelight on a reader's heart.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The coffee is brewing and the egs are cooking and the NY Times is beckoning from my Kindle. The coffee gets savored, the eggs get et, but the Times sleeps until tomorrow now that the canary cages of America must suffer as trees and eyesights are savesd.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Shake it, nag it, bake it, bag it. Nothing like hunting for gray hairs.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The fire that inspires, conspires to empires. The frost that costs, tosses us to lost. Stack high the ties, and bely the flies. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

As we look at our sales sheets and count our shekels, let not the luster tarnish the art. A great work occasionally sampled has far greater rewards than a pot of stew, consumed by the gallon and passed by the pound.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Routine is essential in creating ruts. Ritual is essential for maintaining the spirit. However, a mantra that keep your steady as Freddy might well be called a *rutual*.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Below the clouds, we get wet. Above the clouds, we get dizzy. In the clouds we get lost. And all this on a clear day without a cloud in the sky.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Writers use words to impart information. Authors use words to snare a reader's heart and soul. Writers impact the mind. Authors engulf the spirit forming an indelible bridge between two imaginations. Writer report. Authors relate. Writers use writing as an end. Authors use writing as a conduit. Writers showcase their craft. Authors invent and design the craft. Just to mention the differences . . . A few. I could write more aboutit, but I prefer to author.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Writers use words to impart information. Authors use words to snare a reader's heart and soul. Writers impact the mind. Authors engulf the spirit forming an indelible bridge between two imaginations. Writer report. Authors relate. Writers use writing as an end. Authors use writing as a conduit. Writers showcase their craft. Authors invent and design the craft. Just to mention the differences . . . A few. I could write more aboutit, but I prefer to author.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


Good defining of the difference, Ed. This, along with most of the others in this thread, catches the mind and sends it in a new direction.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The middle road is the classic road, one of core and balance. Adhered to, it will keep you true, but the world hides behind the billboards. To live with balance is to miss the joy of faltering, to achieve the sea without seeing savoring its salitness.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

A disciplined life is difficult to achieve unless you begin from the inside out. Many a slob had\s a well ordered soul.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> A disciplined life is difficult to achieve unless you begin from the inside out. Many a slob had\s a well ordered soul.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


Excellent point. We are never what we appear on the outside on the inside. That is why I never trust my first impressions of the people I meet. Another thing I have learned the hard way: The written word does not necessarily convey the writer's intent.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

inspired by another thread . . . 

Long live arrogance. I use it once a day, whether I need to or not. It's cooler than jalapeno, but spicier than paprika and it keeps others laughing their ass off at my towering humanity.  

Edward C. Patterson
Author of 16 arrogances


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Time comes to us all eventually at Christmas with a naked tree and a gift of warm memories. Silent night. Ponderous heart.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Rhynedahll (Oct 23, 2010)

The French did something of this sort in the 19th century. I don't remember exactly, but they might have called them axioms.

Yours strike me as more free verse, now that I think of it though.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Haiku inspired.


----------



## Rhynedahll (Oct 23, 2010)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Haiku inspired.


Ah!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Step by step, the freedoms come, falling like ripe apples in the sun. And we who have embrassed oppression, rejoice that our children can catch the fruit and make the pies that keep this nation safe.

Edward C. Pattersion
Walking the Line of Freedom, everyone walking together.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

A writer spews words onto a page for the edification of the reader. An author conjures up a new world for the cosmic mystery of the soul.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Adversity makes the survivor, and the survivor must tell the tale.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Lee Sinclair (Dec 19, 2010)

My description of the difference between writers and authors is incredibly simplistic (maybe because I'm a writer).  Writers write.  Authors publish.  I've been a writer all my life.  Finally I got around to actually publishing a book.  So I guess, by my definition, I'm now an author.  But in my heart, I'm a writer.  Of course, I am working on the sequel to my book and I also have another book that I'm thinking about revising, editing, and publishing, so maybe I'll eventually feel like an author.  Who knows.  Stranger things have happened.  

P.S.  Where's the limerick festival?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Good Morning. God's mroining.

Christmas Day, 2010.
Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Watching the snow and counting the flakes, I seem to remember things I thought long lost — like ice forts and snowballs parent-thrown and tall white dunes that made me feel like an invader to a new planet. Now they are just thoughts, because the snow is a heavy burden to the old. Today we lift it. Tomorrow it blankets us. In the end, neither flake nor flesh survive it. Only the memories that drift to another planet's white dunes.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Really like the thought for today, Ed.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The most frustrating thing about publishing eBooks is our need to worry about the numbers. How about authoring a book for just one reader and let the snowball tumble, or fall apart as the case deserves? When I see a successful author (Indie or otherwise), I applaud them - may even buy their book for enjoyment, but I do not analyse their success to see how to change my own approaches. It's human nature, I know, to scurry behind the front runner, nip at their heels and "follow the fold and sin no more." But I remember then that I'm an author, not a Hallmark Card salesman. When I was a Marketing Director, the statistics of trends were exciting and I was paid to find them, exploit them and cash in. But as an author, I am a little enterprise — the village storyteller and, by definition, the biggest liar to my acquaintance. I craft my works like the blacksmith and sell my works like the peddlar, but when the whirlwind of fashion floods over the turnstile, I look to the skylark and find another lie to craft into another nifty tale. 

Edward C. Patterson
Have spreadsheet, will travel (NOT)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Writers are made. Authors are born. When the two hitch up, readers are in heaven.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

It's a wonder how the roads that intersect, intersect forever — how those who wave to us from beyond the shore, are heartfelt and always there. Life's journey is a solitary course for the most part, but oh, when those roads intersect and those waves call us ashore, then is the cause for celebration.

Edward C. Patterson
Happy New Year


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Hail this glorious day — a new year rising on the bright horizon, carried us beneath the fire of a never setting sun. A new decade dawns, by our own measure, but may the passing decade's shadow drift memory and thus a sunset to our mourn.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Nothing makes the bread rise like extra yeast. More yeast, it rises higher. Higher and higher it grows, until the bread is bloated and ready for the oven, where it explodes and the chunks taste like rotten beer. Better to be a little loaf with a sweet taste and a beckoning aroma than a puffed up macaroon too big for your own pan.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Anger is the worst hman emotion as it feed on the spleen and blinds the afflicted. Nothing is real, even the stimulus and everything is worsened in the wake. Yet we forge life with this serated knife that is doublke-edged and rarely blunted.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## traceya (Apr 26, 2010)

Ed I've just been reading through some of your thoughts for the day and I feel truly inspired. To work at my craft, to remain true to myself and to enjoy the moments of life.

So Thank You


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The four seasons happen in turn, or so the body tells us, but the mind tells us differently. So daffodils grace a January morning and frost chills an August dusk. All our sprintimes and all our winters liner in the soul all the 'round.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When watching the sky, we often miss a step and fall into the ravine. However, when watching our step, we often miss the sky and fall into darkness.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The Earth spins once a day. It goes around the sun once a year. The moon goes round the earth every 28 days. Your heart beats in a rhythm particular only to you. Everything has its drumbeat and everything contributes to the dance. You’ve just got to know when to lead and when to follow.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

For an author, the closed world — the gray skies and dark places, fall away in the act of creation. Lands of light and redemption, sacrifice and symposium are brought forth like new solar systems to thrive. On the seventh day, the author saw that these worlds were good and penned the people, creatures of paper for those of flesh, joining them within the spine and under the covers forming yet another an epitaph.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Look down. Every step you take is on ground won by sacrifice on some past battlefield. Look up. Those heroes are there. Breathe deeply. The air isn't free, but it's paid for, so appreciate it before you send your next text message or take your next step. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Life sails on choppy seas, sometimes with a strong wind; sometimes in a doldrum, and then there are the storms. But change is the eternal handmaiden, never content to leave the linens unchanged. Despite all, in the end, our soul soars with the terns and pipers, the sea bracing us in the eternity of a new dawn,

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Victims are downtrodden. Survivors always take the high ground.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The challenges set for us sometimes seem insurmountable. However, with a little help from friends, some driving focus and a dash of maturity, anyone can be their own hero.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## RobertMarda (Oct 19, 2010)

I just found this thread today and decided to give this a try.  Here is something I thought of and wrote yesterday:

Fingers dancing across the keyboard summon computer bound words; incantations that penetrate, then captivate the readers mind.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Every day that I wake up on this side of the ground is a good day indeed.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Never do things in half or you'll wind up without a hole.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

Not an original one from me; it's from G. K. Chesterton, but it's worth repeating:

"A madman is not somebody who has lost reason; a madman is somebody who has lost everything _but_ reason


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I once went bowling and got a strike. I once ice skated and didn't fall. I once skipped a meal and din;t starve. I once turned the other cheek and twisted my neck. Ouuch!

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Budo von Stahl (Aug 31, 2010)

I write, therefore I am...or so it is written.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When the light go out in my bedroom, the lights go on in my head — fireflies that explore another universe that shall spill from the recesses and seep into the author zone when summoned.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Nothing is so romantic than cooking in the buff, but beware of naked bacon making.   It redefines Southern cooking.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## J Dean (Feb 9, 2009)

When a mirror speaks, the reflection lies

(courtesy of the band Living Colour)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I have a light in my soul that I wish to share with the world — to touch the wick and warm the room with those truths that I half-see. So I turn to my paper and raise my pen, plunging the ocean's crests, tearing the meadow's rill and engulfing the horizon seeking to eclipse the sun. Only then can a faint shimmer from my candle remain beyond my snuffing.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

It's not about regretting the things you do, it's about regretting the things you don't. When in doubt, do it!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

On such days as these, I wonder how our ancestors fared — not Mom and Dad or Sir William or Octavius Maximus Pertinax, but the hunters and gatherers that huddled in holes and rubbed two sticks together for heat. Of course, those were the days when surviving babehood was a miracle and life expectancy was seventeen. At least they didn't worry about freezing marrow, old age cricks and when social security will run out. They just rubbed those two sticks together and looked warily at gray skies. Ah! Progress — not to mention, evolution.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Re: Self-publishing (long life the Indie)

If you have the goods, life's too short to wait. Hidden gold is lost gold. The world should not be denied an opportunity to touch the collective imagination. To those who deny both the world and themselves, their larder deserves absolute obscurity. For those who share, obscurity is relative and a spark remains to keep the embers warm.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Being born under the pink cloud, I have learned much about freedom early on — the freedom to lie, the freedom to hide and the freedom run faster than my bashers. However, freedom in any form is better than no freedom at all. And now on the bright horizon I see the dawn of the best freedom of them all. The freedom to be me in the sunshine, wearing my pink cloud seemlessly on my chest for the benefit and freedom of others. When I am free, everyone has finally arrived — the bottom feeders come now to the surface to feast. It's the freedom of asking me who I am and me telling you without fear. Yes, I will have the final freedom — the freedom to die free.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The world never ceases to amaze me — its diversity and infinite history, both natural and human. Yet if you know people and their inner spirit, you can almost write the history yourself. As for nature, scientists will always be trumped and left to their second guessing.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Gravity holds us to the ground, giving pause to celebrate. Gravity is the disease called old age, giving rise to respect. Gravity puts us into the silent Earth, giving rise to mourning. Gravity, to be grave and the grave — Latin teaches us still.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Remembering Dona. 'nuff said.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The Chinese regard history as a mirror, a reflection of ancestors — a source of learning and understanding. Unfortunately, the ancestors liked to rig the reflection to make them look better.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

We insist on putting a price on our best efforts — our glorious art, and in that act we anchor it in safe harbors instead of on the open and imaginative seas. Value diminishes in the commercial doldrums. We auction our souls in the process. Going. Going. GONE. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Mirrors, we are mirrors on a sea of changing values. The world I knew, I know no more, and yet I tell you, as long as I hold breath, I shall reveal it, so through the changing values you might see me in your mirror and reflect on a world at twilight.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

If I have learned anything from my term as an author it is that I am nothing. However, I am the greatest nothing in the world.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Every smart-ass has a wise-crack.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Gravity holds us to the ground, giving pause to celebrate. Gravity is the disease called old age, giving rise to respect. Gravity puts us into the silent Earth, giving rise to mourning. Gravity, to be grave and the grave - Latin teaches us still.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson





Edward C. Patterson said:


> Every smart-ass has a wise-crack.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


I love how your thoughts vary from the witty to the sublime. Thank you for taking the time to do this.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

When it comes to the end of it, I can't complain. Surrounded by love, travelling to the far points of the globe, six careers, a dozen plus books, the pleasure of serving my country, the luck of being born gay and still there's more toothpaste in life's ever-squeezed tube. I can't complain and when I say goodbye to this wonderful friend — when the journey reaches it furthest point, it will be with fond remembrances and nary a complaint.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sometimes from the mouth of babes we are both chastised and reborn.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## DDScott (Aug 13, 2010)

If there's one thing I've learned in my ten plus year writing-for-publication journey, it's that in order to survive and thrive, you've got to harness your inner Elphaba and Defy Gravity!!!

D. D. Scott


----------



## DDScott (Aug 13, 2010)

Writing every day is the perfect exercise for your muses! You've got to keep your muses fit and in tip-top shape.

D. D. Scott, *MUSE THERAPY: UNLEASHING YOUR INNER SYBIL *

http://www.amazon.com/Muse-Therapy-Unleashing-Inner-ebook/dp/B004774LN4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299071917&sr=8-1

P.S. Sorry for the long link, but I can't seem to get the Board Hyperlink feature to work this morning...


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

The universe is alive and we are aware, because inside the soul of each of us spins the universe. We know it exactly as we should and apply it sometimes as we ought. And when worlds collide, wills determine the course of life, because we are life, unto ourselves as wide as the universe we know — the one that wakes each dawn unleashing a myriad of spheres. Ah, the glory of one single spark — one little thought upon a cloud of good intentions. Ah, the sublime moment when we spin our universe to the stars, forever poured into heavens of our own creation. Ah, the spark that kindles this world, and burns it to an ember for all times and future generations. Ah, I am that spark — the universe entire and I say to you, look upward. Drink in the sunlight so you may renew me when my spark burns low and I need your guiding light.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

As for writing, they said I had the gift, I just needed the wrapping paper and a big red bow. The pros had a field day and I've been authoring ever since, because all gifts should be . . . re-gifted.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## DDScott (Aug 13, 2010)

Some days it's just good for your health (and your muses too) to blow-off all the angst-ridden business-sides of writing...and just write. --- D. D. Scott


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

We Do What We Must When We May


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Come rest with me and hear my tale — a tale of youth and mirth and great unending sorrow. But be asured that when angels fall, their tears renew the living.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Well, If you wondered where this thread had gone, it went underground. That is, I stopped posting and gathered all my posts along with another blog _*A Reader's Guide to Author's Jargon * _ PLUS 2 other engaging works from the internet, _*New Leaves in the Wind * _ and _*Ask Miss Chatty * _ (a drag-queen advice column) and will be coming to a Kindle near you (probably in December) as _*A Reader's Guide to Author's Jargon and Other Ravings from the Blogosphere.*

_






Edward C. Patterson


----------

