there it sits. by its lonesome.
a single, solitary word on a blank page. an atoll of black san serif letters against an ocean of indifferent white.
unless it’s a verb. then I suppose it doesn’t just sit there; supposed to show action and all. so I guess it acts quietly, you know, when it sits alone the one word there on the screen, or on 20 lb stock of acid-free office, or perhaps on millennia-old papyrus scroll … the one word.
the one word. isolated in its inchoate-ness. it usually denotes a beginning. beginnings are good. but to begin again? to borrow a phrase from our Brit cousin (the YOB!), “now that’s bleedin’brilliant.”
that’s where we mere mortals, destined for the mortician-- we who are caught up in the whole time/space continuum thing -- have one very amazing and saving grace, even over angelic beings who witness our luck in awestruck wonder … you and I can always (and I mean always) begin again.
it really is the great catchall in life; well at least in my life, the restart. we can’t get to restoration without the fresh start from scratch, n’est pas?
so what happened last year? were things said? were promises broken? were there disappointments,soul-crushing defeats, unexpected setbacks, death, illnesses, spectacularly rotten luck? did others get blessed and you left out? somebody go out of their way to screw you over? dunno, that. maybe it’s one, more or all of the preceding. I know my hand was up the entire time.
but, let’s try something, you and I, Dear Reader. let’s take a deep breath. seriously, just try this,okay? deep breath. now hold it! hold it. now, long exhale. feel it? that little moment before your next breath? when you and I involuntarily breathe again? we can’t help it; we just do.
to me that is the metaphor spot on for our single word on the page. we should, no matter how many disappointments in our lives, automatically, like the viscera of heart beating and diaphragm contracting, instinctually place the lone and brave first word on the page.
alone. by itself. priming the pump for us, surveying the landscape for the rest of those damned pesky yet beautiful words to join in our atavistic battle … again.
