Planes and Trains of Thought

As I sat with my fingers hovering over the keys knowing that the topic was wanting writing about, I just couldn’t begin it. I couldn’t think of anything catchy to start off with. I made brief notes about what I wanted to say, and then nothing. Inspiration had left the building. And I sat staring at a white “page” with a flashing black cursor taunting me; flashing like a visual metronome, like the second hand on the clock, ticking off the seconds as I sat and waiting for inspiration to return.

Nothing....

More nothing....

...Writing blog posts are like airplanes. The metaphorical non sequitur popped into my head.

Airplanes, huh, ok, I’ll go with that. And with that non sequitur thought this blog post was born.

I don’t know if it’s a good writing practice, or if it’s just something I think is a good writing practice, but I have always felt that each of my blog posts should have an intriguing introduction and an amusing or poignant conclusion to make it a reasonably good post. If the beginning and ending are good, people might forgive the middle if it’s gets a little out of hand or wanders off on a tangent or stops mid sentence for no apparent reason.

So, by this reasoning, I recon, blog posts are like airplanes; you can forgive a little turbulence if you have a good take-off and landing.

Not that I know the actual statistics, but I would wager a guess that more planes crash during take off and landing than just fall out of the sky mid-flight – if anyone reading this works for Transport Canada or the Federal Aviation Administration feel free to send me stats on this – it would make such comforting reading for me as I prepare for my next airplane adventure. I would imagine that taking offs and landings are more dangerous due to the proximity of the solid and unforgiving presence of the ground (albeit running into the side of the mountain mid flight would also prove somewhat unforgiving).

I think I'm beginning to deviate from my initial flight plan. Let's see if I can get back on course.

I have skipped the occasional post of some of my favourite bloggers because they didn’t grab me right off the bat (and I was reading them at work and the level of guilt outweighed my level or interest).

Maybe having a good beginning is not something simply reserved for blog posts. I have, on occasion, given up on reading a book because it hasn’t piqued my interest within the first 10 pages or so. I also vaguely remember a teacher in school warning us against LDEs – no, not LSD - LDEs (Lame Duck Endings – an ending to a story that leaves you thinking – meh, what was the point), so it can’t simply be a figment of my imagination; this need for a good beginning and a good end to wiring - in general and, more specifically a blog post.

I realize that in my confession of this strange albeit loose analogy, that from now on (or from now until you forget about this blog post) will have you reading all subsequent posts (or previous posts, if you missed a few and need to catch up) of mine with an eye to the take-offs and landings.

Hopefully you will forgive the occasional rough departure and bumpy or sudden (hopefully not fatal) landing as you read my posts, not all days are ideal for flying, but sometimes you still need to take the flight.

I have to confess, this is not the blog post I was planning on writing today. That blog post will have to wait – existing for the time being as little more than random thoughts in the form of short sentences, phrases and single words on an otherwise blank page. I’ll have to save it for another day when my inspiration for it takes flight and my creative plane takes off with that blog post on board, until then it will have to just wait at the gate until all the passengers have safely stored their carry-on bags.