Last week, I attended the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference for the second time. It was again a very informative and educational time in regard to good writing skills, though I don’t think I share the intensity of most of those in attendance in the pursuit of a writing career. At any rate, it was good to be around so many talented and motivated people.
I took a continuing class each morning, “Writing Creative Non-Fiction,” since that is the genre of both of the books I have written. One day the leader gave a list of short assignments from which to choose in order for us to practice the principles being taught. My selection was to take something outlandish said to us by our parents when we were young and write a brief response as an adult. I’ll share my creation with you now.
“Keep making that face, and it will stick that way you know.” Even my youthful mind questioned the accuracy of such a prediction, but enough “what if” was present to cause me to forsake the behavior. Decades later, the man staring back at me from the mirror wonders, “How bad could it have been?” He is proof that a man’s ears and nose really do keep growing, and he never fails to display the sagging jowls, shrinking lips, and the growing turkey snood that connects my chin to my chest. No, I was never branded with a childish facial contortion frozen in time, but time is creating one not of my choosing. How fair is that?
O well, I can’t help getting older, but I’ll never get old.