Brown Lipstick

Today is the day I begin my greatest endeavor. Normally, here in this little space on the interweb, I write occasional thoughts and observations. Sometimes I throw in something about my life that I hope others might find amusing. I have even put some goofy lyrics and bad photos in this blog for your big laughs. Starting with the very next post I am going to do something much more personal. I am going to write an entire book with each post being a new chapter. The name of this book is "Phantom Limb", an expression referring to the eerie phenomena that occurs when a person loses a portion of their anatomy but continues to feel that lost part as if it is still attached. You can take it literally or metaphorically, but however you decide to absorb it, it is a tribute to the human spirit that no matter how devastating or minor a loss, humans just can't seem to let things go.
Here is a joke. A man had lost an arm in an accident and it left him very depressed. He was a guitar player and missed being able to play. He didn't like the way people looked at him and shied from him. He decided to commit suicide. He went to the top of a tall building and was ready to jump when he saw a man with no arms walking below. The no-armed man was skipping and clicking his heels. The man felt foolish, he was without only one arm and here was a man missing both and was gleefully skipping and clicking his heels. He ran downstairs and caught up with the man who had no arms. "What is it inside you that gives you, not only the courage, but the joy to carry on, and carry on with such joy that you feel you need to click your heels?' The man with no arms looked at him curiously and said "My ass itches." end of joke.

So this idea of writing a story via a blog might be a bad one. The story itself may be awful and unreadable. I might get some very mean comments from people like I do with my regular blog and that could hurt my feelings. You might ask, Joe, with all of the crazy crap that happens to you daily, and all of the real people in your life that you could trash to pieces in your blog, why would you even dare approach writing fiction? My answer is two-fold my dear friends. I have forever wanted to publish a work of fiction, and every time I finish a blog, the blogger program asks me if I want to "publish", so today my answer is yes "I want to publish!" Simple reason number two...."My ass itches." XXXXXI