Don't Compare

Quote for the Week

I'm trying to go through mountains of printed material in an effort to clean up my office. I jot things down and print things out and lay them aside to use in the future. Consequently, I end up with bits and pieces of stuff floating around.

Today's quote is one such example. I don't know from where the quote came, but it's lying here. I've read it several times and had saved it because I thought it was full of wisdom.

Richard Bausch offered this wisdom.

"Don't compare yourself to anyone, and learn to keep from building expectations. People develop at different rates, with different results, and luck is also involved. Your only worry for yourself should be did I work today? Be happy for the success of your friends, because good fortune for one of us is good fortune for all of us.... You will never write anything worth keeping if you allow yourself to give in to petty worries over whether you are treated as you think you deserve, or your rewards are commensurate to the work you've done. That will almost never be the case, and the artist who expects great rewards and complete understanding is a fool."

Takeaway Truth

Heed this good advice, and you'll be saner, more successful, and much happier.

At Ft. Hood, Day Is Done

(Click here to listen to TAPS.)

Yesterday, the memorial service honoring the fallen at Fort Hood concluded with the playing of Taps. The bugle notes of this melancholy tune always touch me. Today is Veteran's Day, and I found myself thinking about the ceremony yesterday and about Taps. Who wrote that melody? Who penned the lyrics?

Butterfield's Lullaby

Officially known as Butterfield's Lullaby, Taps is also called Day Is Done because of the lyrics of its second verse. It's always played by the U.S. military during flag ceremonies and funerals, usually on a trumpet or bugle.

Rest Of The Story

Though Taps was once thought to have been composed entirely by Union Army Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield, commander of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division in the V Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac, that theory was laid to rest in 1977 by Russell H. Booth in his magazine article Butterfield and Taps.

In the article, Booth wrote that an earlier form of the Taps melody, which Booth called Scott Tattoo to differentiate it from several other nineteenth century bugle calls known as Tattoos, was published in musical notation in an American military manual, published in 1835 by Major General Winfield Scott. The Scott Tattoo itself was probably derived from other earlier military bugle calls whose origins have been lost in time.

Butterfield's Contribution

In any event, General Butterfield, in July 1862 at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, in the midst of the Civil War, wanted a new bugle call. According to Booth's article, he knew General Scott's manual, and he knew how to sound bugle calls so he probably knew what is now being called the Scott Tattoo. History shows that he requested help from a bugler in adjusting the pitch and timing of notes for a new call.

The new song replaced the traditional French bugle call that signaled lights out. Oliver W. Norton, of Erie, Pennsylvania, was Butterfield's bugler and the first to sound the new call. Within months, Taps was used by both the Union and Confederate armies.

Lyrics

Originally, Taps was instrumental only. Over the years, several people have written lyrics to the melody. Of those, I think the first lyrics, written by Horace Lorenzo Trim, fits best. The first line of the second verse gave rise to the other familiar name for Taps, Day Is Done.

Fading light dims the sight
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright
From afar drawing nigh,
Falls the night.

Day is done, gone the sun
From the lakes, from the hills, from the run
All is well, safely rest;
God is nigh.

Then goodnight, peaceful night;
Till the light of the dawn shineth bright.
God is near, do not fear,
Friend, goodnight.

My heart is heavy with sorrow for those lost at Fort Hood last week and for those lost in wars far from home. I knew some of you. I thank all of you for your sacrifice.

Takeaway Truth

For veterans and for those on active duty, may God bless and keep you and your loved ones. Day is done.

A Lifetime In A Day

Quote for the Week

"Life is short. The day is long." That's what Harl Delos, one of my frequent readers and commenters said in a recent post on his blog Canthook.

This thought held resonance for me as I read the newspaper accounts of the tragedy at Fort Hood this week. Life truly is short, and we never know when the end may come.

Yet, the day is long and offers us a chance, every minute of every hour, to offer friendship, to live with joy, to help others, to mend fences, to celebrate life, to work toward a worthy goal, to grant or request forgiveness. Each day, take the opportunity to make your own personal universe better.

Takeaway Truth

At the end of a day or a lifetime, can you take comfort and be at peace, knowing that you did what you could to leave the world a better place?

Hold Tight by Harlan Coben

I picked up the paperback edition of Hold Tight by Harlan Coben last week. I've been reading nothing but nonfiction lately so I needed a fiction fix. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of starting it when I was riding home from the high school art competition on Saturday. Big mistake.

As a result, the family had leftovers Saturday night because I didn't want to put the book down. Even worse, I stayed up all night to finish it because once I was on that accelerating train, I couldn't put it down even though the subject matter, parental fear about the many things that can destroy a teen's life, isn't one of my favorite things to read. There's just too much crap in real life that can entrap a teen and destroy lives so it's not my idea of a fun entertainment.

Pushed My Buttons

I'll confess the book pushed my buttons beginning with the back cover quote from the New York Times: "A thriller for the Google era." Yep. That did it. Ring up the sale. I like technological thrillers and mind-expanding ideas, and I usually learn something from them.

The interesting thing is that the book is a slow build. Sure, it begins with a hook that's just plain good writing. That leads to a horrific scene that let's you know real fast what you're in for yet it's nowhere near as graphic as any of the TV shows dealing with forensic evidence and crime scenes.

Then the story unfolds with increasing tension as a normal man copes with situations beyond his experience. A novel is characterized by rising motion, and this certainly can be described that way. You get locked into this man's emotional agony, and you root for him to save his kid.

My Only Quibble

I'm not a big fan of coincidence which figures prominently in the book. I know the author was reaching for the subtlety of "6 degrees of separation" rather than coincidence. The average reader probably saw it as "6 degrees." We writers are just a more critical bunch, a fact which I wish wasn't true since it takes away some of the pleasure of reading.

You'll like the normal relationships expressed by the husband and wife who "star" in the book, and you'll be glad it's them going through the parental trial by fire, not you.

Takeaway Truth

Nothing beats a good book for engrossing entertainment, and Hold Tight is certainly that.

Enid Bagnold & National Velvet

The book National Velvet by Enid Bagnold was probably responsible for more girls wanting to ride horses than any other book that comes to mind. The late Ms. Bagnold in her autobiography titled simply Enid Bagnold's Autobiography had something great to say about writing as a career.

Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it's the answer to everything. To "Why am I here?" To uselessness. It's the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it's a cactus.

Takeaway Truth

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Keeping Writing Contemporary

I'm fascinated by some of the things you can do with technology. In writing. I think we need to stay up on the latest technologies so we don't make dumb mistakes in our plotting. There are all kinds of communication devices as well as ways of hiding information in today's world.

Steganography

Steganography is the art/science of creating hidden messages so that only the sender and the recipient can read the message. A recent episode of the TV series Bones featured steganography as a plot device.

Actually, this isn't a modern day invention. The word is from the Greek meaning concealed writing, and the first recorded use of the word was by Johannes Trithemius in his Steganographia in 1499. His work was a treatise on cryptography and steganography and was disguised as a book on magic.

The way it works is that the secret messages appear to be something else entirely, i.e., pictures, articles, or some other mundane text. Old school ways were to use invisible ink between the visible lines of a private letter. If you were a kid into reading kid mysteries, you know you dip a pen in lemon juice and writ on paper. You can't see the writing until you apply heat to the page. That was similar to the principle used in the movie National Treasure where a treasure map was on the back of the Declaration of Independence.

If that gets your imagination working and you want to learn more about steganography, watch the lecture. It's fascinating.

Takeaway Truth

A writer must write for the culture in which he/she lives. Even the world we inhabited 10 years ago is far different from today.

Titles With Panache

I enjoy reading through my different writers' publications and seeing who is publishing what. Here or a few titles that are so intriguing or weird that they make me want to read the book.

The Pleasures And Sorrows Of Work by Alain de Botton is kind of an adult version of Richard Scarry's kid classic What Do People Do All Day. The author said that he wanted to explore a subject that most novels overlook. people who go to work. Most novels deal with people who are in emotional upheaval.

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows would be on the short list for an award for the longest and oddest title should such an award be given.

The winner of the British Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the year would have to be The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-Milligram Containers of Fromage Frais by Philip M. Parker. That certainly sounds like exciting reading, doesn't it?

Last but not least is Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It by Geoff Dyer. Of course, I already have a couple of books on yoga that I can't be bothered to read as well as 2 or 3 DVDs on the subject that I can't be bothered to watch.

Takeaway Truth

Titles matter. Great titles cause readers to take note, and that leads to book sales.