swishism

We all do it. It doesn’t matter whether what we’re doing is particularly messy work, if we’re wearing something with sleeves, we roll or shrug them up. Maybe it’s a sign to ourselves and to others that we intend to do work. Maybe just a habit. Either way I think it’s important to shrug sleeves for our own sakes. We live in times where it’s easy to paper-shuffle, clock watch, and well… sleeeve shrug because someone is watching/or because it’s expected.

I think something different happens when we consciously shrug them, we acknowledge that this could get messy or sweaty or paint splashed… that mistakes are likely.

For me, not being able to start the day, or a task with this kind of approach is  a serious loss. At least that’s my take. [Shrugs]

Picture by Clearly Ambiguous, Creative Commons License

swishism entry attitude, creativity, habit, preparation

Here is a sentence I wrote in the draft manifesto of the whole swishism quest, when I first began

I guess I am trying to write swishisms that shame.whoever.is.still.hawking lies, that stretch.whatever’s.inelastic.starting.here, today; realising that it will either snap back with a force that propels us to another place or break the status quo entirely.

I think I was onto something, what I didn’t count on was my inconsistency posting these posts. Since starting this blog, though, some things have changed.  Long story short:  I’m in shape of my life, I exercise a few times week, eat a reasonable diet, get enough sleep, but…

some very good physiotherapists have assured me I need to do a series of stretches everyday for the rest of my life to stay at a physical peak without pain.  Everyday.  Nothing to panic about; I’m thankful that it’s just a preventive measure that will help to avoid any real pain, and offer huge flexibility gain.  More than that I’ve snapped out of agreeing that inconsistency, in any respect, is OK, that it has no effect (although it didn’t cause the condition, inconsitency won’t help it).  No more hawking lies to self or refusing to stretch for me. Lets hope we see that commitment online, too. I’ll be posting 3 swishisms a week from now on.

swishism entry choice, compounding, habit, stretch

I thought of saving this one for a really bad day, when I felt like doing something retaliatory after hearing something that offended me; but, ironically,  that’s the moment I’d be  least likely to want to let the matter lie.  Today, at least, when all is calm, I have the grace to shrug in advance  if it ‘kicks off’ tomorrow.

swishism entry choice, habit, ignorance, ignore, indifference

Apparently, strictly speaking, the anti-spyware program that fixed everything on my laptop recently, didn’t know whats it was looking for; it starts from a place of ‘being stuck’, and looks for attributes and characteristics that look fishy. Perhaps this is how the dancer put together her routine in the first part of this series?

When I was at Primary (Elementary) school, I remember thinking “Why are the teachers always giving us scissors and Golden Gum glue, and not much guidance (well, my phrasing was different back then, but you get the idea). Turns out they didn’t know why either*, they just knew that giving kids a set of guarded blades, and Stephen’s golden gum, got results - chiefly the passage of time, but also some innovation.

I guess I do most of my writing this way, on the look out for attributes and
characteristics that resonate with me because of their pith, rhythm, or timeliness…

it just gets me excited with / ideas and commensurate split decisions–dividing swish
and at the same time multiplying his / narrative by 3, first to third person, with new biases

Seriously though, whilst kids don’t always have great discernment. They have the chutzpah to truly create and edit whatever they feel like. They don’t call it interpretation, or heuristics, or ‘throwing it at the wall’, but they do know when it’s stuck. I guess that’s the kind of ’stuck’ adults could use, too.

*I can safely say this, now that I teach

swishism entry creativity, habit, just do it, kids

“Planes of thought need to land, calm skies cause turbulence
semaphore.wave.inspiration - she’s hurtling!” - [verb]swish

Great ideas can crash and burn when they are left cruising overhead at altitude, or they can (literally) live to tell the tale.

We can scream attention to the ideas that are ‘out there’, manoeuvring them to touchdown on runways (paper) with ready pens (flags), or not.

How urgent is your wave?

swishism entry capturing ideas, choice, habit, ideas, initiative, signal, wave

I’m often asked how I write, about my method and such.  Unfortunately, after 5 years or so of gigging , I still find myself seeking “the answer” from other more experienced writers.

Things have gotten a lot better though, and when I look back on things I can see there’s a thin line between the sincere I-want-to-be-a-real-writer aspiration and the I’m-gonna-be-a-real-writer hubris. The latter expects it will just happen; the other respects a  Jiminy Cricket voice that challenges her the moment she’s tempted to break the daily habits of accretion, of simple discipline factored over time;  “skipping writing?” is his favourite question, followed by a seemingly sympathetic “I see” and then the clincher, a muttered observation that calls it like it is, “half-stepper”.  Seinfeld’s  dontbreakthechain is as good a strategy as any, for any type of writer.  I’m gonna use it for keeping these swishisms coming, no half-stepping.

swishism entry accretion, compounding, discipline, habit, productivity, taking action, writing