Blog Posts

“OK. Okay?! O.K? Okey!”

Which is your pick when typing it out? Have you ever paused to think about it?

You most likely write it and say it out loud many times a day. But it’s almost so automatic, quick and common that it’s not really something to think about, right?

Well, I’ve been thinking about the humble OK a lot, while reading Bill Bryson’s popular book on the English language. In it, he talks about the etymology of certain words. And so I discovered that we actually don’t have a consensus on where the word originates.

“A good day is a quiet day, much of the time spent gazing out my window here on the second floor of our house, where I can look down into my modest garden of black-eyed susans, pink and white phlox, and purple coneflowers while trying to organize my thoughts.”

That was what writer Joyce Carol Oates responded to a question of a good day, pointing out the unsung hero of our time: the humble window.

It’s astonishing how much can happen inside a small frame.

They keep us safe from the elements while providing us with extraordinary sights.

“Why does my mind have the best ideas at 3am”

I’ve said it and I’ve heard it.

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with my mind racing with crazily good ideas. And then, because the idea is just so good, I’m certain I’ll remember it in the morning. And I happily go back to sleep (after all that’s what I’m supposed to be doing). Then I wake up, and no idea what that idea was about.

It was really good (obviously), but that’s all the clues I have.

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

That sombre six-word story is sometimes discussed as the world’s shortest story. It’s also misattributed to Hemingway, although he isn’t behind it.

Nonetheless, I’ve found it quite moving and, more so, a perfect example of the power of words.

And recently, it’s also gotten me to think about the relationship between simplicity and creativity.

“It’s not like anyone reads these anyway.”

To hear that as a content writer can be somewhat disheartening. And even that feels like a mildly put statement.

What made this particular utterance slightly sadder was that it came from a client. I admit that it made me question both the quality of my work and the purpose of my… well, entire career.

Now, the client wasn’t actually questioning the quality of the work at all. In fact, they were delighted with the material. This comment wasn’t even directed at me.

“When’s the deadline?”

It’s a sentence I’ve uttered many times. And it isn’t until recently that I learned the word has its roots in a literal deadly boundary.

During the American Civil War, a deadline referred to a boundary within prisoner-of-war camps. Cross the line and you risk being shot on sight.

No wonder hearing a task has a deadline makes many of us squeamish.

“The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”

This quote by Helen Keller caught my eye recently as I was thinking about fear.

The thing about fear is that it’s so easy to get hung up on. Our minds and bodies like comfort and security. Uncertainty and unknown can be dangerous.

Current theories suggest that fear is likely a genetic predisposition or a reaction to a traumatic event in the past.

“What would Dante do?”

That’s the question Youtuber Struthless, challenged everyone to ask in the face of the current upheaval around the world. His video wanted to look at the chaos many of us feel today through a positive spin. He argues that, throughout history, the dark times have often resulted in a ‘creative renaissance’.

When things go dark, the artists, writers, musicians, and others create and find the light.

In Dante’s case, when you get exiled from Florence, you go and create the Divine Comedy.

“Everybody can write”.

I heard this sentence in a professional setting a while back, and it’s stuck with me ever since. It sort of sucked the joy out of my day.

Now, if you’re reading that as a positive, “You can do it, just give it a go, ” I salute you. That’s how I’d like to think of it.

Heck, most of us are taught to write at a young age!