Into the Terror-itory of Perplexity

Writing into uninhabited territory of the mind provides insights, unleashes creativity, and enables problem solving. It may feel uncomfortable at first but anxiety dissolves as one word moves into another and sentences propel the forward progress of ideas.

Do you recall a time in your life where you had a choice of turning right or left?

Did the path you moved on stop at a place with too many choices in all directions?

Did you choose to say Yes or No?

Did you make the easy decision when a more challenging solution would have provided more growth?

How do you feel about your choice-making abilities?  When you scan your life choices, which major decision points come to mind?

Make a list of five perplexities and write about what your life would reveal today if you had made another choice.

Do not judge or flavor the writing with right or wrong.  Just detail the different scenario and the person you might view today.

Follow images that feel confusing or ambiguous. Expand upon troubling thoughts as you dwell in the "terror-itory." Permit distaste or disaster to percolate into new vistas.  They will reveal areas you need to write through to provide clarity for future decisions.

After your initial freewriting, set your ego aside. Choose one of your perplexities. Create a name and assume a persona with different eyes. Dig into this alternate psyche and see which road he or she might choose.

You may discover a character for a story.

Feel the freedom as your writing meanders beyond the terror-itory.

CAW CAW

Curiosity. Awareness. Wonder.  Creativity. Amusement. Wakefulness  (CAW CAW)

In a Zen story, tigers pursue a man to the edge of a cliff.  Grasping a root that extends from the cliff face, he climbs down toward the river below and holds on.  He'll either plunge to his death or the tigers will shred him.

He looks up at the sky, and notices a crevice that revals a plump and juicy berry.  He plucks and eats it, the juice dripping from his chin.

So, what if there's no juicy berry?  

Write a story of  choices in a challenging moment?

Consider beyond taming tigers, meeting angels, or jumping into a hot air balloon as ways to create a solution to the above.

Craft your own "teaching tale."  Keep CAW CAW in mind!

Fifteen Minutes

The notion of everyone having fifteen minutes of fame comes from Andy Warhol. In February 1968 Warhol exhibited his first international retrospective exhibition at the Moderna Museet gallery in Stockholm. The exhibition catalogue contained his quotation. He actually said, "In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes."


In later years, Warhol became tired of the line when interviewers harped on it. In 1979 he did repeat it, claiming, "my prediction from the sixties finally came true: In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes."  

Today's media exploitation of celebrities in sports, politics, and movies, along with reality t.v., makes Warhol seem quite prophetic.

If you had your 15 minutes, what would they reveal?  Write about your flurry in the spotlight.