Imperfection is Beauty, Madness is Genius
There’s something almost poetic about stumbling across a quote that smacks you in the face with its sheer truth. It’s especially true when it’s from a woman whose life was a masterclass in walking the tightrope between brilliance and batshit crazy. Marilyn Monroe once quipped, “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it’s better to […]
Learnings of a Hapless Dreamer
Often I’ve seen myself as a hapless dreamer, stuck in a world full of seeming coincidences. Everyone is whining and wallowing in self-pity, making up all sorts of excuses instead of trying to better themselves. After all, it’s easy to get caught up in the rat race, running from one thing to the next, thinking […]
Do You Want to Be a Thought Leader?
When I first became serious about writing online, both in personal blogging and in freelance web writing, I read a lot about thought leadership. But, what baffled me was, despite everyone talking about becoming a thought leader, no one really talked about how one actually becomes a thought leader in your certain area of expertise. […]
Piercing the Mundane to Find the Marvelous
I’m quite fond of this quote from American journalist Bill Moyers: “Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.” No matter how mundane something may at first appear, creative efforts can find ways to make it not only interesting, but marvelous! How’s this done?Let’s explore how creativity can transform even the most ordinary aspects […]
The Dangers of Over-Optimization
The 2020’s have become the age of over-optimization for everything. While I respect people’s need for maximum efficiency, it’s quite possible to go too far. I’ve seen this be especially true in digital marketing, when people bow to the almighty search engine results to get new leads… only to be entirely unable to handle the […]
The Genius of Emily Dickinson and Her Idiosyncrasies
Emily Dickinson’s poetry is full of hyphens and capitalized words. Are these idiosyncrasies in her poetry a sign of her poetic genius? Emily Dickinson is famous for her idiosyncratic grammar, uncommon uses of punctuation, and seemingly random capitalization of words. Despite using typical poetic devices such as assonance, consonance, and alliteration in her works, her […]
The Life and Times of a Reluctant Prophet
Many of us are raised to believe that prophets are charismatic figures who emerge from the shadows, their voices filled with the promise of deliverance and truth. They’re supposed to be the fearless leaders, the visionaries who guide us toward a brighter future. Yet, here I am, a lonely child turned reluctant oracle, whispering inconvenient […]
Deserts in Literature
How Deserts Serve as Both Muse and Antagonist for Writers With its seemingly endless expanse of arid, sunbaked terrain, deserts have long captivated the human imagination. Often regarded as a place of harshness and isolation, the desert has served as both an awe-inspiring muse and a formidable antagonist for writers throughout history. As a palette […]
Setting the Bar for My Writing
One of my greatest difficulties is setting the bar for expectations in my work much too high. It’s as if unless I produce a masterpiece daily, then I failed not only myself, but everyone who has and ever will read my words. Of course, whenever I try lowering the bar, I find myself producing nothing […]