Mrs. Fitz's Story Emporium

Chicagoans are becoming soccer fans, thanks to the razz-ma-tazz of the recently completed World Cup games, which, in Wrigleyville, gives taverns a reason for being, which the Cubs are finding difficult to provide.

I have a suggestion to make in the flush of this excitement over a sport that prohibits the use of hands: I propose that the United States of America import the powerful narrative technique of those commentators who gave us the blow-by-blow of each contest.

In one game, Germany is “waiting and lurking in cursory fashion.”
In another, Uruguay is “snarling defiance.”
In another, Spain is “breaking up the pretty patterns.”

American sportscasters are good. They are lucid, likeable, lively. It would be cool if they also became more facile with language.

I am learning to love watching this game, in part, beacuse istening to the commentary reminds me that words, like fine sport, can lift us all to a place where it feels damn good to be alive.

Reason # 7:
Sometimes would-be writers don’t get going because they THINK. This is in error. When you think, you can’t write. Thinking gets in the way because it is busy analyzing, sorting, figuring, deciding, responding, and generally imposes conclusion.

Thinking also leads to writing ABOUT and that is tricky, too. Maybe it’s a response to a question like “How was your day?” or “What did you do on your summer vacation?” or, “Tell me a story.” Responding isn’t writing. It’s sorting. Writing about something isn’t writing. It’s describing.

Not to say thinking isn’t important in writing. It is. It’s editing. Editing is fixing words so they confrom to understandable forms. That’s a good thing because it doesn’t do any good to write and have no readers. However, editing is not okay during the time you are writing. So, go. Just go.

Here is my assessment of age-related, short-term memory loss:

As we age, we lose short-term memory because we don’t need it; and, more to the point, neither does the rest of humanity.

Who wants to ask Grandpa, really, what he did this morning? “I took a heart pill, had a less than stellar poop, watched Oprah; which was about…Oh, I forget.”

Fascinating, however, is Grandpa’s LONG-term memory, packed with adventures, cautions upended, women loved for a bunch of reasons, none sane. Good stuff.

At the other end of the age continuum, which is to say, among younguns, short-term memory is critical. It’s funny; and, in fact, it’s the ONLY memory wee ones possess.

Ask a 4-year-old what she did this morning. “I looked for the sun outside my house and so then I found a bug with a red coat on it, with black spots. My bug’s name is ‘Reddy’ and I wanted her to fly but she satted on the ground so I petted her.”

See what I mean? In kids, short-term memory totally rocks. In the elderly, it sort of dulls down the day. I think this is God’s way of conserving and managing His human resources. Let the kids take care of today and let the aged remind us of all those todays that already happened.

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