{"id":1825,"date":"2015-06-22T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?p=1825"},"modified":"2015-06-19T01:11:25","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T01:11:25","slug":"ctrl-z","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?p=1825","title":{"rendered":"Press Ctrl+Z?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201c...for 3.8 billion years ... Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected ... in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result -- eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly -- in you.\u201d\u00a0
Bill Bryson<\/a>, A Short History of Nearly Everything<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Because of author Bill Bryson, the world is a better place. He is among the most creative in his generation of authors. It's his life's work to remind us how spectacular existence is.<\/p>\n

Wouldn't you like it to be said you make the world a better place? \u00a0Who would you want to say it?<\/p>\n

As author Michael A. Singer suggests in The Unfettered Soul<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0be the chief witness of your own life, and be reasonable. You are a tiny speck in vast space. And, while Singer says there isn't much you can do to affect the rising sun or setting moon, consider Dr. Seuss' words\u00a0in his Happy Birthday to You!<\/a><\/em> book: \"If you hadn't been born, you might be a wasn't. A wasn't has no fun at all, no he doesn't.\"<\/p>\n

And, as the creative 19th Century writer Oscar Wilde said, \"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

If daring to be your creative self is among your life's aspirations, know it comes at a steep price. In Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class<\/em><\/a>, Scott Timberg says creative types in the 21st Century are hard-pressed to find enough paid work to sustain themselves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Public funding is sparse in America. A study by Grantmakers in the Arts - Supporting a Creative America<\/em><\/a> points out that\u00a0internationally, Ireland's $16.96 per capita spending on the arts (not including Northern Ireland) in 2012 compares to Unites States' $0.47 per capita spending on NEA<\/a> funding in the same year.\u00a0With no patrons and barely perceivable support from U.S. taxpayers, arts grant applicants of every ilk are left to vie for a sip from an arid well.<\/p>\n

As a person whose first poem published (for cash American dollars) in a magazine\u00a0in 1981, I already considered it a stretch to be a sustainable poet or fiction writer in the 20th Century. All but non-fiction writing seemed out of the question if I wanted to\u00a0do right by\u00a0my children. Non-fiction it has been - for magazines, newspapers, educational and marketing\u00a0outlets and business - as creative as I can make it.<\/p>\n

Among my most financially lucrative careers was a twelve-year stint as a writer in a corporate Information Technology department. It involved comprehending the operation of a given computer application (App) and adhering with singular devotion to the technical-writing style guide to describe steps to using the App.<\/p>\n

When let lose to write an\u00a0intranet article free of such style constraints, I basked in the task - a child at the\u00a0beach. A subsequent nearly five-year position in the same firm called for article writing only. Sunscreen, please!<\/p>\n

In the computer world, pressing the Ctrl+Z<\/strong> (Undo) keys lets you undo unsaved previous actions. It prompts a screen refresh, such as erasing text you haven't saved in a document. Everything you haven't saved, \"Poof!\"<\/p>\n

Now, if I could press that key to undo something in\u00a0my life, what would I erase that hasn't already warranted space in the recycle bin? Certainly, never\u00a0ties that bind\u00a0with my dear\u00a0husband or family, nor with friends of the road. Not the poems or\u00a0articles; not the\u00a0video scripts or books, not\u00a0short stories, essays, paintings or sketches and not the IT quick guides or online help. You can be sure I'm with Bill Bryson - basically thrilled by my life - and all I can say is what my\u00a0 daughters say to me on Mother's Day: \"Thanks so much!\"<\/p>\n

As time ticks away in my 90-year plan, I'm more inclined to one day press\u00a0Ctrl+C<\/strong> (Copy) and Ctrl+V <\/strong>(Paste) on some futuristic computer and atom-by-atom download myself to a next world. Maybe\u00a0art grants\u00a0would be better there, and I could afford to be more creatively daring. Or, just continue to be content - no, amazed - to have lived and created at all. As Mr. Bryson says, consider the odds.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Mother<\/a>

Mother of the Bride<\/em>, a portrait by Vincent Mancuso<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201c…for 3.8 billion years … Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected … in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result — eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly — in you.\u201d\u00a0Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1825"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1869,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions\/1869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}