{"id":2417,"date":"2019-05-30T05:16:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T12:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=2417"},"modified":"2019-05-30T05:29:21","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T12:29:21","slug":"blessings-of-the-blank-page","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=2417","title":{"rendered":"Blessings of the Blank Page"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/mb_color_bestyearsblog-150x150121-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/mb_color_bestyearsblog-150x150121-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2349\" \/><\/a>The blank page\u2014it\u2019s a writer\u2019s greatest curse and blessing.<\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s get the bad news out first. Make no mistake; a blank page is terrifying. \u201cWhat if I have no ideas?\u201d \u201cThis blog isn\u2019t going to write itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But we still do it, write, that is. Someone said writers can\u2019t \u201cnot write.\u201d Why? Maybe, it\u2019s the blessings of a blank page. Here are a few of them.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefulness\u2014despite what may have happened (or not happened) yesterday, a BP gives one a new start. How many things can do that?<\/p>\n<p>Instruction\u2014The ancient Greeks called it \u201cheuristic.\u201d Writing teaches us something. Elie Wiesel said, \u201cI write to understand as well as to be understood,\u201d and Edward Albee wrote, \u201cI write to find out what I\u2019m thinking about.\u201d If you journal, you\u2019ve experienced this.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom\u2014On my BP, I can move in any direction I please, with content and style. I love that. I\u2019ve never done well at coloring inside the lines.<\/p>\n<p>Adventure\u2014The BP can take me places I\u2019ve never dreamed of going, and not just in my mind. A piece I wrote about a train whistle ended with an Amtrak trip though the American West.<\/p>\n<p>Therapy\u2014Wise King Solomon said that \u201clife and death are in the power of the tongue.\u201d Words can heal, whether spoken or written. <\/p>\n<p>Bridge-building\u2014My grad school teachers said it was the secret of good communication. Help a reader see what you see, feel what you feel, and you\u2019ve succeeded. I think it\u2019s the greatest  blessing of a BP.<\/p>\n<p>That said, the BP I face next week will be just as terrifying.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy your weekend.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The blank page\u2014it\u2019s a writer\u2019s greatest curse and blessing. So let\u2019s get the bad news out first. Make no mistake; a blank page is terrifying. \u201cWhat if I have no ideas?\u201d \u201cThis blog isn\u2019t going to write itself.\u201d But we still do it, write, that is. Someone said writers can\u2019t \u201cnot write.\u201d Why? Maybe, it\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2417"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2420,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417\/revisions\/2420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}