New Year’s Resolution - Hard Work and Rapacious Ambition
Like Eric Johnson of Catholic Light, I had a suspicion of blogging Not very long ago, I was suspicious of blogs. ........I figured most blogs are junk.

And they are. Most blogs are self-indulgent, masturbatory junk, emanations from people who couldn't get published anywhere else.

I jumped in with enthusiasm anyway. If only as an exercise in writing, which I do occassionally and with slow, deliberate loathing. Daily blogging has removed the loathing and I certainly have gotten over the slow and deliberate problem. So, if only for my own mental stretching, like an ungainly, portly and aged ballerina, I keep on blogging. I’ve grown acccustomed to my own little domain of self-indulgent, masturbatory junk.

Latching on to some small memories of people who have implied that I should someday attempt professional writing, I am also buoyed by Mr. Johnson’s definition of what separates small time theatrical talent from the ‘stars’ : hard work and rapacious ambition.
..... famous actors are famous not because they are talented, but because of brutally hard work and rapacious ambition. There is no other explanation: normal people can't compete because they prioritize their lives differently: they might consider their work to be important, but as one important thing among several. Perhaps this will have to be the year I adopt brutally hard work and rapacious ambition as my goal. Hard work shouldn’t be too difficult - most mothers are already accustomed to a certain level of brutally hard work . Rapacious ambition may be a bit trickier. Time to look in the Yellow Pages for a ‘life coach.’

PS - Does a modest portfolio of cranky letters published in the Chicago Tribune qualify me as published?