Two Truths and a Lie

Something feels dishonest about writing a blog down today that I really wrote in my head yesterday, but there, I just admitted that, so now I think I'm cool with it.

Favorite word du jour: Catharsis.

What a concept. Pain is a concept too. And the word "concept"...let's just say my head could go on spinning for hours on that one. The point is, concepts have no form at all, but catharsis allows you to take the concept of pain and channel it so that it becomes something else. Relief? Peace of mind? Well, whatever it is you feel when your guitar or a computer game or your poetry or your blog gets you out of a bad mood. You take this invisible thing and you make it something else invisible with some instrument, and it could be an instrument that works for no one but you. Like a flour sifter sifts flour for anyone, and anyone can use a ladle to serve soup, but a piano only makes noise for me and for someone else, it might make the difference between them putting a gun to their head or not. The transition from pain to relief gives an entirely new meaning to the latter person's piano. Catharsis has given a whole new identity and purpose to an inanimate object. This may not make sense to anyone else, but I find it utterly fascinating.

But there's more than inanimate objects and banging on your instruments. Sometimes you just need to say something, release your pain vocally and have everyone or anyone else know it and then you are sated. Venting, for example. I'm a big venter. Also, I have a blog, so I mean, what more is there to say? I like having my voice heard. I like attention. I like revealing what's on my mind. So what else is new?, ask those of you who know me.

Well I'm definitely not alone, and the more writing classes I take, the more I meet those like me. But then, I guess that makes sense, since that's sort of the point of writing, isn't it? If my emotions came out through a piano, I'd be a pianist. (And that might be fun because it's a great word, but alas, I digress. I am not a pianist. That hope died when my dog, Rocko, who was half German-Shepherd half Doberman, bit my piano teacher, Mr. James.) Anyway, in Creative Writing yesterday, we played that ice-breaker game, Two Truths and a Lie, which I had never played before. It was pretty innocent, right up through me, who went with "I know the capitals of every country. I have taken three languages in college. I have spent every summer in Miami since I was five." (Dumb, I know. I panicked. I've never played before.)

The next guy played it a little differently. "I am 21 years old. I have a six month old child. I am recently divorced." As it happens, the child was the lie. Now, we were all being pretty chilled out until that point. I mean, I know my stellar geography abilities can be shocking to the inexperienced but it's not like announcing that I got divorced the same year it became legal for me to drink at my own wedding.

The next girl took a tip from him, I guess, and used "I wasn't invited to my father's wedding" as one of her truths. Now did these people just want to throw their pain out there for all the world to see or what? And I get it, I do. Not that I was planning on replacing the language thing with "my father nearly died of cancer this year", but you know, I hear wanting to express your pain.
But you know what's better than making the class really uncomfortable on the first day?

GETTING A BLOG.