Don't Look a Hobby Horse in the Mouth

So, recently, my wife and I were talking about hobbies and how we are both in desperate need of something to occupy our time other than work, eating, television, and sleep (not that all of those aren’t enjoyable or necessary). The topic of a hobby for me went back to my old stand-by…this…writing. Yes, I used to write a lot back in the day. Some of it was thought provoking and informative and some of it was just pure indulgence, but it was a good outlet for my thoughts and a fun way to take up some of my time. At the time I was writing so vigorously I was employed as a youth minister and time was something I had an overabundance of. Once I started working on my MBA and then got a real job, time seemed like a luxury that I couldn’t afford to take up with mindless meandering through my thought world. But, as I have recently gotten a real REAL job with a company that is so focused on its employees and their work-life balance, I have come to find myself with a little more free time than I had been used to. Up until this point I had been occupying my newfound time with an increase in television consumption. However, now that is proving to be tedious as it seems like I watch the same things over and over again. So, I am going to try to do the writing thing more. I know I have proclaimed my return to regularly writing with trumpets and fanfare in the past and those have fizzled out quickly, so I am approaching this a little differently. No hullaballoo this time. Just this intro and now on to my topic this time around which happens to be, my writing.

In that same conversation where we talked about hobbies and me getting back to writing my beautiful wife reiterated her love of my writing. She has particular posts from my blog that she enjoys incredibly. One that she says she could read over and over is my ode to mashed potatoes. She talks about that blog post every time the topic of my writing comes up. Over the time that we’ve been together and she’s known of my past blogging exploits, every time she has brought up “the mashed potato one” I have smiled and nodded and laughed at her enthusiasm. The thing is, I could not remember for the life of me what I had written in that post or practically any of the posts I’d done back then. So, the smile and nod was the only reaction I had at my disposal. However, this time, as she prodded me with questions about how I came up with it, I broke down and told her I couldn’t even remember what I had written. So, she quickly grabbed her phone to pull it up and read to me (I was driving at the time). This situation immediately made me want to write something because I found it so odd and entertaining.

Let’s just think about this for a second. I had no idea what I had written. I was experiencing this for the first time just like any other reader who might stumble across it when searching for the mythical land of Lake Gravy. And from what I heard as my prose slipped wildly from my wife’s excited mouth was incredible. I’m not bragging about my writing, as most of you know, but it was pretty amazing. I don’t know how I came up with all those metaphors. I don’t know some of the words I used, I’d have to reference a dictionary, but I was apparently fluent and comfortable with them then. It almost doesn’t even sound like something I’d write. It has a little Ted Mosby pretentiousness to it as well as a Half Baked munchies craving vibe. It is literally an ode to mashed potatoes and gravy. As if written by someone who had spent their entire life studying it and was boiling it down into simple (if not overly wordy) terms. There is a touch of poetry there. A touch of lyricism. And a heaping healing of what might only be described as creative liberties (i.e. craziness). I never thought I would enjoy hearing what I had written so much. Perhaps if someone other than my biggest fan was reading it to me, I might not have. Regardless of that, I was impressed with myself and a little shocked also. I wonder if other writers feel this way when they are confronted with their work.

I can’t promise more gems like the mashed potato post will be coming in the future. It depends on if my passion for something gets sparked to a high enough level to write like that. I was in rare form on that one. I had a couple other ones that matched that excitement and level of silliness. Not a lot though. Truthfully, I miss having that kind of passion for something. That kind of furor. It seems like the older I get the more I feel sort of “meh” about a lot of things. Sure, mashed potatoes still do it for me. Whataburger still elicits that kind of reaction. But, my passions have calmed somewhat. Right now, my biggest passion is my wife. My smart, silly, beautiful wife, who brightens my days and warms my nights. I could write a blog about her that matches the intensity of the mashed potato one, but I’m sure she wouldn’t want that. Haha! I guess that might be what this is all about. Trying to find my passion again. Writing brought out all of those passions, all of that excitement, when I was younger. Maybe it will again. Hopefully it will. Join me and we will see!