According to the calendar, it’s a new year. I have trouble getting on board with that – who plans a beginning in the dead of winter? It’s crazy. We create the reality in which we live, we should, like other animals, move in the rhythm of the planet. For convenience sake, I will use it to delineate my writing year. In truth, the year starts at the spring equinox. Which makes sense: spring, birth, new beginnings. If we create the world in which we live and have our annual beginning point in the dead of winter—what great things can we expect?
But here I am with my annual agenda. I am, in my heart—soul—a wordsmith. I refuse the terms resolution and goals. Both leave room for failure. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, resolution means: a firm decision to do or not do something. Decisions are always mutable, changeable. A goal is a desired result. Attainable or not.
On the other hand, an agenda is a plan of things to be done or problems to be addressed. Stronger word. It derives from Latin, agree meaning do. Yup, I have an agenda, things to do. Mountains to climb and all that. Reading, writing, as l little arithmetic as possible. But I have other things.
I have a beautiful fountain pen and blank journals, my goal is always to journal—but it’s been a goal—something to strive for. Now it’s on the agenda, not negotiable. I did make a mess of my fingers refilling the glass cartridge. Writing is an integral part of who I am, it should always be on my agenda. Everyday.
Journalling, writing poems, essays, blogging, working on my novel, reading, editing, listening to songs, reading books and poetry… wording. It’s what feeds my soul. I look at art and wonder what the artist was thinking, what were his or her words that brought this art into being. I have friends who write songs; I am always stunned when they tell me the music comes first. It is beyond my comprehension.
Songs—albums to hear—I own 2,246 albums. Own. If I listen to one album a day, it will take mea little more than six years to listen to them all. 20,064 songs (currently, of course, this number is sure to grow). It is incredible that I ever hear the same song more than once! I have made a considerable investment into this collection, I own a pair of kick ass Harmon-Kardon speakers.
I am going to listen to my music, read—write---books, poems! I am going to look at art, listen to poetry. Engage with art whether it be words, music, visual, film, dance, food, fashion, people. Welcome to the 2020 adventure, the year of things beautiful at Culture Salad.
And we will talk politics, this is the turning point for the beauty known as the American Democracy. Get on board!