Just about every Sunday morning since it opened you will find Kelly and me stopping into the Dunkin Donuts at Hampton Ponds for breakfast. We usually sit in the corner booth and just unwind a little from our busy weeks.
This morning Kelly had on her NaNo WriMo T-shirt from last year. She was an ML (Municipal Liaison last year and accepted the role again this year.
It was our turn to be served so the girl took my order, then she looked at Kelly and her face just lit up. She mentioned that she had tried to do NaNo but she has ADHD and has difficult buckling down and writing. We told her that Kelly is this area's ML again this year, and that we held a write-in right here at her Dunks last November. She was excited to hear that and couldn't stop smiling. I handed her a WhipCity Wordsmiths card and told her to contact me and we'd see what we can do to help her focus and stay on track writing something- maybe not a novel, but something that would build her confidence and keep her writing. She tucked the card in her pocket and said she wasn't going to lose that!
I came home after breakfast and did some research in regards to writer's with ADHD and found some good tips to share with her.
I know Kelly and I can both be easily distracted by our cellphones, by what John is watching on TV in the other room while we're trying to write in the kitchen, by conversations and activities going on in the places we might be writing (bookstore, donut shop, library, etc). It's hard enough to focus when you don't have ADHD. I can't imagine how difficult it must be when your brain is jumping around from this to that and the other thing (we all have an overload of input these days into that fantastic computer called our brain...it's so easy to short circuit and give up on what you planned on doing because it's just too much effort to stay focused!)
Anyway- the point today is that Kelly's wearing a writer's T-shirt to breakfast sparked a brief but enthusiastic conversation with a young lady that brightened her day and ours. Hopefully she'll be in touch and we can pass along tips to her that may help her get something written.
All writers have something to say, a story to tell. Getting it written is a challenge. Having a support network and a writing mentor is beneficial because they can help you get something done, even if it involves taking you to a quiet place, like a picnic table in a nature reserve and encouraging you to put down one word after the other, sentence by sentence...even if it's just for ten to fifteen minutes. Then take a little walk to reboot and maybe write again for five more minutes or whatever. If that's what t takes, that's what a mentor and supporter should do to get a writer started and build her self confidence, and to give her a few tips to train herself so her wings can unfurl and she can fly independently.
My other thought from this experience this morning is that we really do live in a wonderful world, if we just take a moment of our time to smile and respond to people face-to-face. The social isolation that social media and our ever present cellphones have created...it's like we're individuals living in self-absorbed bubbles. People walk out in front of traffic focused on their phones and not what is going on around them as if they are protected and invincible within that sphere of focus on their phone. Who's to say the driver of the vehicle approaching you as you step off the curb, frequently not even within the "safe zone" of a sidewalk, is not also focused on their phone while operating what is basically a killing and maiming machine, usually at an excessive rate of speed? Are you that ignorant that you think the whole world is going to alter physics to allow you to cross the street?
I miss the not so old days before we became obsessed with cellphones. We talked to one another. We showed courtesy and respect to one another. We looked one another in the eye and communicated with glances, body language, gestures (not just the one singular, predominant, rude gesture of today's society of all ages). Technology has sucked the basic humanity out of human beings. Thank God all species of wildlife don't have cellphones glued to their noses/paws/hooves/talons! It's ironic that we walk around this planet thinking we're the superior species- are we?
I am stepping down off my soapbox now and wishing you all a good Sunday. I'll be having coffee and conversation with some friends at another Dunkin Donuts this afternoon-always a nice respite in an otherwise busy, hectic life!
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