Okay, Okay, I’ll Play
A Lindsay Lonai Linegar Tag
Which wild animal has taken your breath away when you saw it unexpectedly?
I once witnessed one of the most beautiful and yet powerful wild mustangs I’d ever seen. Its coat was a blend of chocolate brown and beige with dark black mane and tail. To watch its mane flow back against the wind, as it kicked at the ground with sleek, yet muscled legs and darted across the countryside at break-neck speed was simply amazing.
What kind of music makes you nod your head or break out into full-on dance mode?
Wow, I suppose any kind of rock-n-roll power ballad or some toe-tapping, country swing. However, I caught myself nodding and punctuating the air with an imaginary maestro’s baton to Beethovens’s ninth in D Minor (Ode to Joy) just the other day.
What three things are you most grateful for today?
My health, my family and my lovely wife who’s willing to put up with the life of a writer.
Seriously though, I think she just hasn’t yet figured out the best place to bury a body in the back yard.
What’s something in your neighborhood or city or village that regularly fills you with wonder?
Traffic. I’m constantly filled with wonder as to how the roads are consistently filled with people who either don’t care how or know how to drive.
Oh, and leaves. Each winter I’m filled with wonder as to why my front and back yard gets covered in more leaves than the year before. It’s like one of the families of leaves started yelling as soon they broke free from the branches. “Hey everybody, compost party at the Barnett house! They won’t bother to rake until March!”
When was the last time you laughed with someone in real life?
Easy, last night. I said something stupid (you’re all thinking what else is new P.G.?) and my wife busted out laughing. Before long we were both spewing wine through our noses.
Pretty danged attractive if I do say so myself.
How do you play?
Uh, mediator? Could you please restate the question? Like how do I play cards? Terribly. How do I play dominoes? Even worse. How do I play cribbage? My wife beats the crap out of me every time and I taught her how to play the danged game. When I go to the casino how do I play twenty one? Lousy, I…
“Hold up Rosanne Rosannadana! She means how do you play.”
“How do I play, play?”
“Yes.”
“You mean like a musical instrument?”
“If that’s how you enjoy life with a little play, then yes.”
“I don’t play a musical instrument.”
“Then never mind. Back to you Lindsay.”
What makes you come alive like nothing else?
Usually, these flipping writing prompts.
No, seriously, two things offer me a sense of completeness, that moment when you know you’re firing on all cylinders.
Me and the missus crying over some sappy movie. It’s that moment our hearts and emotions are shared. We’re experiencing the same feelings, and for the very same reasons, a moment when we’re no longer two distinct people but reacting and emoting as one.
Nothing says coming alive like bawling like a three-year-old with your honey.
The second is the feeling I get when something I’ve been working on, really struggling hard to create, suddenly jumps to attention and snaps into place.
That’s a hot damn moment to be sure. And I’ve got to tell ya folks when it happens (much too rarely for my tastes) I feel like King Kong. It’s kind of like booyah, in your face!
Let’s keep in touch: paul@pgbarnett.com
© P.G. Barnett, 2019. All Rights Reserved.
