Monday, March 21, 2011

totting up the future


Adventure comes with costs.


A year ago (almost to the day), I broke my right ankle ziplining in Puerto Vallarta (one foot in the gravy).  And, even though that fracture decreased my mobility, I have been on the move ever since then.


Starting with my seven month stint in Oregon to train my successor in my old job.  Followed by the Bloggers' Conference in
Mérida and a trip through the Yucatan Peninsula with Islagringo.


When I finally got to Melaque, I ended up taking the three bus tours we have been discussing for the past two months.  To Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Morelia, Pátzcuaro, and Mexico City.


And then I was off to Oregon again for a week to settle some tax matters.


This past week is the first quiet time I have had in my apartment for almost a year.


It has given me an opportunity to think about my adventure here in Mexico.  And what I should be doing with this blog.


But all I have been doing is thinking.  As far as I know, a new press secretary is not waiting behind the current to make any news-shattering announcements.


What I do know is that I have been having great difficulty writing over the past two months.  Part of that is due to my travels.  It is hard to construct an essay that hangs together while enjoying sights in the highlands.


We will see what happens this week.  I have a long list of topics I want to write about.  All I need to do is find my wandering muse.


Because I have plenty of tales to tell.  Just as I have my own story to live.


There is a Mexican national myth that the author of the lyrics of the national anthem, Francisco González Bocanegra, was able to write the lyrics only after being locked in a bedroom by his fiancée.


I have no one to lock me in a bedroom -- for any purpose at all.  But I intend to spend this week spinning tales of the local area.


Let's see what happens.  Maybe Thalia has some surprises in store for me.

22 comments:

teresa freeburn said...

i'm sure you would have told us if you'd made your decision. but i am curious as to whether or not you have decided where you will spend the summer. or are you taking a break from traveling then checking out more places?

i look forward to hearing about your local area.

take care steve and have a great week!

BubbaPickles said...

I read recently that Keith Richards & Mick Jagger's manager had to lock them in the kitchen overnight to get them to write their first hit.. Maybe there's an idea? Personally, I'd have to make sure that the fridge & cookie jar were both empty before that strategy would work.

Calypso said...

Everyone needs someone to lock them in the bedroom now and then. Or is that "...needs somebody to love"?

I think we all go through times of wondering about these crazy Blogs we send out into the air - sort of speak. The purpose, value and rational for such a crazy thing. Then we just continue on - it is addicting I think.

LeslieLimon said...

You could rewrite a phone book or the dictionary, and I would still read it AND love it! :)

Tancho said...

So does that mean if you were trapped in a hot sweaty cab in traffic somewhere you would be able to whip out a stellar post?
I for one am pretty impressed on your current literary output, unlike myself, you do not seem to have dry spells......so to speak.

Nita said...

I'll just add an amen to all the replies on your literary skills. It is totally refreshing to read something by I'm sure an accomplished speaker.

Alee' Robbins said...

"I have no one to lock me in a bedroom -- for any purpose at all"

jajajajajajajaja!!!!! Very clever.

Steve Cotton said...

Having got that post out of the way, I think the juices are running again. We shall see.

Steve Cotton said...

I am afraid if anyone locked me in a bedroom, I would simply take a long nap. And, like you, if locked in the kitchen, I would be in snack heaven.

Steve Cotton said...

Addicting it is. I say I do it for me. But I really enjoy the interchange with the people who comment -- and even the people who don't. It would be difficult to find a suitable substitution.

Steve Cotton said...

Rewriting the dictionary is always a temptation. But I think I wll stick with easier bites to digest. And there will be more.

Steve Cotton said...

I almost bought a netbook to take advantage of thodes times like stalled taxis to get some writing done. But I anm in the perfect place to write. And write I will. I just needed to get over this hump.

Steve Cotton said...

And I do love to talk. Come to think of it, I love to write, as well. I just need to get myself back in the mood.

Steve Cotton said...

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I chuckled myself when I put it together. Anne Lamott told me once that it is not good manners to laugh at your own joke. But we both took pleasure in doing it.

ANM said...

I'm looking at the picture of hanging stuffed animals which heads this post. Isn't something missing? A toothfully grinning Steve Cotton in bush garb, holding -- oh I don't know -- an elephant-size popgun, standing before, above, or below, his shot game.

I can't imagine the work it will take to gut and clean the game, or what exotic recipes or sauces will be required to help them trip the Light Fantastic of your
jaded alimentary canal. Eerie, no?

And forget my homage to Teddy R. and Ernest H. What the hell has the picture to do with anything?

Did you get all your stuffies dirty during your scouting about Mexico, running them all through the extra-heavy cycle on returning home? And, if so, what does that say about the stability of your already unstable psychology. Or is labile a better descriptor? Or simply lunatic.

If I am correct, right at this point of reading my comment, you are sheepishly taking your thumb out of your mouth and defiantly shouting to the monitor: "Is not!"

I rest my case.

ANM

Steve Cotton said...

Sir -- You have obviously misplaced your Jungian archetypes. The line of freshly-laundered dog toys can represent nothing but the Persona attempting to refresh its mask with pseudo-academic analysis.

Or it may represent the shadows in Plato's cave (the philosophical conceit, not the far more interesting night club). Proving conclusively that objective truth is merely a bunch of stuffed animals.

Don't eliminate the Freudian cop-out -- that sometimes a penguin is just a penguin.

ANM said...

A stuffed penguin at that!

Steve Cotton said...

Better than a stuffed shirt, I say.

Nice to have you back on the playing field.

1st Mate said...

Sometimes you just need some quiet time. Meditation, lolling in a hammock, watching paint dry, whatever. You have been moving around so much I have lost track of your whereabouts completely, and it looks like a good time to put on the brakes for a bit.

Steve Cotton said...

Well, I thought I was going to relax until I started doing some chores around here. But will be a tale for later in the week.

ANM said...

Have you completely lost your mind?

ANM

Steve Cotton said...

I never do anything completely.