Turns out when you’re a stay-at-home mom of a 14-month-old toddler, chances are slim you’re going to slip away for a 30-minute hot shower to bumping dance tunes to chase away the blues. However, what did the trick for me was popping the movie “Shakespeare in Love” into the old VCR. (Yeah, I know — shut up.)
Writers love stories about writers. It’s like vicariously experiencing the touch of the Muse on your own shoulder, the thrill of inspiration within your own breast, and the immortality of your own words.
After William Shakespeare meets Lady Viola, he is possessed by the Muse, overcome with energy, inspiration, and excitement, and he writes all night. The music rises with his passion as he cuts quill after quill, sets aside page after finished page. At that very moment, he is but a contemporary playwright in this story, but I already know the words he’s setting down by heart: “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”
What was that moment like for the real William Shakespeare when he set down those famous lines? Did he experience doubt? Did his inner editor grumble about his diction? Did he have any idea that hundreds of years from that very moment, people would still be singing praises for his genius?
It brings me to tears to imagine the infinite possibilities of all of our efforts. I wish that Mr. Shakespeare knew just how many millions of people he has touched with his gifted pen. It reminds me that we, each and every one of us, possess that potential, that possibility. We are alive, and all is well.
After that, everything was rosy. Spent most of yesterday afternoon making the baby laugh, taking her for a walk around the neighborhood, making and eating a lot of babganoush, discovering that Good Earth’s Coco Chai Tea is even better than their Chai Tea, and having good conversations with a couple of wonderful friends.
And last night, somewhere in the wee middle, I was gifted with two short story ideas…proof that no matter how I’m feeling, I’m always a writer. I always have been, and I always will be.
And yes — thank God — I did eventually get that shower. 🙂