The BumbleRabbit Archives

Good morning, Erin. I had a teacher in college who always told us not to stress out if we had writer’s block. “Lower your expectations,” she told us, encouraging us to just write something and trust that there’d be something to salvage from it, regardless of how good it was. It was her version of the old “writing is rewriting” adage, hoping to get us to realize that we’d never get anywhere thinking we had to create a perfect, finalized product from the first moment we set pen to paper.  Which is a funny thing for a guy who clearly has never truly learned that lesson to mention, I admit, but I bring it up because what struck me today was how similar that sentiment is to something I have long-tried to adhere to in my everyday life (though almost never to great effect): the Zen concept of the “beginner’s mind.” Essentially, the idea is to approach everything in life without preconceived notions. I should also be stricter about my diet. Since I’m listing really good ideas that I can’t...

Good morning, Erin. I never really watched Game of Thrones . I had read the books it was based on (for reasons entirely unrelated to the popularity of the show), but I didn’t have HBO or friends with HBO—and, even if I did, I don’t think I’d have been interested in putting in the effort to join them for a Sunday night watch party every week.  But having read the books put me in a unique position, for once in my life: I had knowledge about a thing that the popular culture at large was interested in. I was far (far far far ) from being an expert, but the story was fresh enough in my mind, at the time, that I could talk at length about what was happening in the books and how that either matched or differed from what was happening on the show. That is, I could, for the first (and perhaps only) time ever, participate in the “water cooler talk.” Now, I don’t know If you’ve noticed this, but I really, really like talking about the things I enjoy—or, rather, I like talking about the thing...