Mark Twain is looked upon as being one of this nation’s most brilliant paper scrapers; one who scratches thoughts into the core of a living tree turned into a thin blizzard white canvas.
His greatest challenge wasn’t facing editors, printers, buyers, sellers and or an imagination that decided when and if it would show up for work…Twain had unheard of difficulty masterminding a plan to tell his own tale.
Twain wrote: I have been dictating this autobiography daily for three months. I have thought of fifteen hundred or two thousand incidents in my life which I am ashamed of, but I have not gotten one of them to consent to go on paper yet. I believe if I should put in all or any of those incidents I should be sure to strike them out when I come to revise the book.
Mr. Twain deeply disliked unveiling the skeletons in his closet because of an evolution we all introduce ourselves to; what we lived is no reason to share because to regurgitate it teaches us to reinvent fact.
Wikipedia typos and rewrites are nothing compared to the chapters of our daily lives. By the time our efforts reach the image in the mirror, like the child’s game Telephone…the message received has nothing in common with the origin of thought.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs built machines that opened our minds to erasing without having to paint whiteout over ideas now changed. For PC fans Control/Alt/Delete masks the problem it doesn’t solve the issue. We eat to fade away from bad moods. We buy to reboot our love for life. For millions the vision of having passion for the art we design at work has evolved into a 480 minute prayer meeting echoing our gratitude for insurance companies that have grabbed American culture by the nun-sims and squeezed until there’s nothing.
Chuck writes on Face Book, “I’m tired of being the generation that can’t break away from an episode of Friends. They are beating us to death! Where is originality?”
Research shows American’s find an overload of peace and tranquility living in the past, therefore the Entertainment business doesn’t punish us with repeats but instead feeds our reasons to feel safe in a past that Mark Twain believes we rewrite everyday.
I challenge you to go back three to five weeks and reread your Face Book posts. Invite your present to sit with the past and learn to recognize how much you haven’t changed.
I’m extremely guilty of this mental torture! Three of my books wouldn’t be without having a firm relationship with a past that hangs around like a worn out intern or family member.
After 33 years of sitting loosely in the empty radio channels and poetic curves of a hell bent creative life and style I decided to finally complete a book I began in the eleventh grade. It’s only reason for life was to keep me motivated to stay in school. Therefore the junior in high school created a place to breathe. The book has changed so many times man not only switched back to being a monkey but his evolution now includes a cell phone attached to the inner lip next to the front teeth turned into flat screens.
Fans of Twain waited 100 years for his authentic never before seen adventures with a writing instrument. An avenue of travel he didn’t want to participate with but peer pressure forced him to push ink into the veins of history.
The National Enquirer once hoisted a flag over the greatest collection of word dumping within the circles of success: Because inquiring minds want to know.
And now you know the image we fear to shed. In each of us is a tiny battery operated device that taps on your shoulder every chance it gets to remind you of something you promised yourself you’d never forget.
I don’t remember my grandparents talking about crossing paths with friends long gone and written out of the will. The idea of taking something to your grave passed away in the 19080’s during an episode of The Dukes of Hazard.
A Spanish friend writes, “I didn’t come to this country to hear what my parents listen to in Mexico. I want Led Zeppelin, Boston and KISS. Please let me borrow your Marvin Gaye CD’s.”
What is the drug that keeps us addicted to the past?
A minister once shouted from his pulpit, “Your life! Will be played back! Oh it will be played back! Everything you do today! Everything you did yesterday! Every happy time! Every crime! Your life! The beginning all the way until the end will be played back before you enter the gates of Heaven! Then God will decide if what you did…if what you do tomorrow…if what you said, say and deliver through the actions of choice if you shall enter his home blessed with eternal peace.”
Ok…innocent question. Lord knows my book Conversation with the Devil ruffled a few unexpected feathers…if the keeper of the Beta tape player is gonna play it all back…what in his name are we doing hitting button while here on earth?
Reach! I said reach! Reach for a new dream! You were born to create not rewrite, edit, undo or crumple up, delete, repeat and or bring back up every time someone steps on your ten little toes! Shape the future by participating with it. Do it before it’s too late!
I love the idea that NASA has dropped the space shuttle mission because its time for our human feet to walk on Mars. We can't get there playing Chess in an International Space Station.
I will always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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