Harder Questions

Yesterday I received a group email from our writing instructor, a well known local journalist, and one of the kindest, most unpresuming humans I've encountered. He dispenses his teachings with a spoonful of sugar always.

He treats us students as authors in the same league - humble warriors fighting writer's demons, privy to the magic that rewards us for never giving up.

He is working on a piece for publication that requires him to go deeper and reveal more about himself than he is accustomed. It is challenging but he will find the right voice and theme and will let us know how the process goes. For inspiration he pulled a well-worn note from his wallet, handed to him by Sandra Cisneros in 2003, which says, "Ask yourself harder questions."

Hard questions I might want to ask myself:

- Am I better off with a man or being more personally challenged by remaining alone?

- Can I start being joyful on a daily basis by simply making up my mind to be so?

- What is my ideal life?

- Can I truly be happy for other's good fortune - as if it were my own?

- What is it I hope to accomplish by writing with absolute honesty?

- Why is a black platform boot lying on the grass so intriguing?

Today and the next few days will not leave me time for writing so I'm ending here and will contemplate these questions for future blogs.

I would love to hear what hard questions others ask themselves.