Monday, March 31, 2008

The Spectacular And The Mundane - Wright

Images of the spectacular parade across our screens daily. Lethal fires. Ruinous floods. Fatal crashes. Dramatic drug busts. Horrific suicide bombings. Stunning blondes. Deadly firefights. Impossible feats of daring.

Correspondents tramp the world to find the most compelling stories to capture our attention long enough so we last through the next commercial.

As writers we’re taught to hook readers with the first sentence, certainly the first paragraph of whatever we’re writing. Something dramatic. Something gripping. And so it must be, for ever and ever, world without end. Amen.

But today is not very dramatic. Indeed, quite mundane. I flipped a switch and the lights came on. I turned on a tap and water obliged by flowing out. The furnace hummed away in the background keeping us warm. Oh, a calico cat with a bell around its neck peered in our window this morning. Probably attracted by the chickadees who flitted back and forth to our feeders, as they have all winter. The rain came down melting some snow. I savoured a cup of coffee. The orange juice tasted, well, orangey. And the jam on my toast was…a bit dull. Better look for a new brand.

Like I said, mundane. Just an ordinary day. Routine. Commonplace. Unexciting. Humdrum…maybe that’s going a bit too far. Actually, now that I think about it the commonplace things of life make life, well, livable. Possible. Worthwhile. Maybe that’s why I’m supposed to be "always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 5:20). Sorry, Lord, I keep forgetting.

No comments:

Popular Posts