I can only get a sentence or two typed before a very energetic dog paws at my leg with a slobbery tennis ball in her mouth. I am required by "dog law" to throw the ball out of the office and down the hallway. My attention seems to accompany the ball, and just as my concentration returns so does the dog with the soggy ball. I have read the last two sentences forty times to try and get back on track. Not sure this is the most effective way to write.
Dog law is not the only thing that makes these self imposed deadlines to write another blog more difficult. It used to be easy to look around and see what was going on and skew it a little to make it funny. However, as I look around I haven't been able to see the funny recently. Yesterday at the gym the television was tuned to CNN. The market had dropped 635 points when an old man walked by. The staggering number caught his attention. For no one in particular except himself, he looked at the free falling market numbers, shook his head and pantomimed committing harakiri. Months ago I could have easily done a funny essay on that event, but it was a little too real. At times like this we all need funny... I hope the muse has not left this plain.
Last week I attended court for a sentencing hearing. The courtroom was filled with supporters of the defendant and even the Judge commented on the sheer number of attendants. An actor friend was allowed to give a very moving character profile for the defendant. It was touching and persuasive. It left us all with a lump in our throats. This is a kind person, wrongly convicted, who does not belong in a jail. I really thought his honor might be swayed. But the Judge was not inclined to mercy that morning. The defendant was remanded.
It was a long ride down in an elevator filled with family members, friends and the defense team in shock. There was a pallor of depression over the entire group. There was nothing to say and the silence made it too thick to breath. Suddenly the actor said, "What I really want to know is... How do you think I did?" It was perfectly timed and the spontaneous laughter filled the elevator car with emergency oxygen. Humor... it can be a life saver.
The muse may not be totally absent, but she is not being used enough.
As you were,
Jay
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