On the 5:15

I've always enjoyed a challenge, but yesterday I realized just how much I enjoy a challenge. Granted, I meet most of them with some trepidation, but once I quit with the timid tap dancing and get down with the boogy, I really get off on it. I'd forgotten that somehow. Or maybe I didn't fully realize it. But... damn.

At first I really didn't at all like the prompt for my post yesterday. (Read it here.) I could relate to it way too easily and I didn't want to just post my personal experience(s), which not only would have been all too easy, but also entirely too depressing. I wanted some fun. So, I sipped coffee and circled the damnable prompt for a couple of hours.

I even whined about it until my friend Dave hit me between the eyes with a well aimed bullet. "Just let it flow. You're at your best when you just let it flow."

So, I circled some more, poked at it a little to check for vital signs. Then I thought, "What the hell. It's supposed to be a challenge. So, take a possibly sad-inducing challenge, and bend it to make it fun and funny." Yeah, sure. Great idea. I kind of scoffed at myself, "You're outa your mind..."

Bingo. Out of my mind was exactly where I needed to be.

I needed to step away from the subject as it related to me. Cue huge sigh of relief. From there it was relatively easy. I closed my eyes and the first thing I saw was a cordless phone, a coffee pot, and a pack of cigarettes sitting on a counter. A still life. I looked at them for a few minutes, wondering what they were doing there, who they belonged to. While I was still pondering, a woman walked into the scene, cursing under her breath, grabbed the phone and said, obviously exasperated, "'Lo?"

I liked her instantly. I knew who she was and what she was all about.

And I could not wait to tell her story. (It's giving me goosebumps to write about this now.)

Afterward I caught myself wishing that people would challenge me every day. Then I realized how ridiculous that is. I have the power to challenge myself every day. I have everything I need to force myself to look at things from different angles, to not take for granted what I'm seeing, to take what I'm seeing and throw it into a different context. What kind of an artist or writer am I if I don't force myself to do that on a regular basis?

I'll tell you... a one-angled view leads to complacency, and complacency leads to trite output. I don't ever want that. I want the whole picture and I want to relay the whole picture.

This was all a huge Aha! moment for me. Expect some changes. Expect to see the view from askew.

Expect for me to step aside and let some 'other' do the talking on occasion. What good is having it if I don't use it?