JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Happy Saturday. How are you doing today?
JOE: Pretty well. I finished editing selections for my CD yesterday.
CALLIOPE: What CD?
JOE: I decided to record an audio CD of some of my writing selections.
CALLIOPE: What's the theme?
JOE: My articles on topics related to Spiritual Wisdom.
CALLIOPE: Sounds like an interesting area. Do you have a title for the CD yet?
JOE: I might just call it Spiritual Wisdom but I'm not sure yet.
CALLIOPE: How will you choose a title?
JOE: I'm doing a little keyword research on related phrases. Perhaps one will emerge from the process.
CALLIOPE: Any other avenues?
JOE: I have mentioned the project to a few people. Perhaps one of them will have a good suggestion.
CALLIOPE: You never know.
JOE: I have been fortunate to have good suggestions for my work in the past. Talk with you on Monday.


 

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Good but a little weary.
CALLIOPE: From what?
JOE: Watching the world series two night in a row rather than getting to be early. I was still up at the crack of dawn or before.
CALLIOPE: I didn't know you were a baseball fanatic.
JOE: I'm not. I don't usually get interested until sometime during the world series.
CALLIOPE: Anything especially fascinating to you?
JOE: Yes. Commentaries discussed hitting and pitching streaks and slumps. I saw a parallel with writing.
CALLIOPE: How so?
JOE: I wanted to write over the past week but just couldn't seem to immerse myself in it.
CALLIOPE: You have been writing.
JOE: Yes but not with much enthusiasm as much as I tried to generate some. Suddenly my boiler fired up and I'm back at it with full energy.
CALLIOPE: Another of life's mysteries?
JOE: I suppose so. I'm just glad my writing energy is back. Talk with you tomorrow.


 

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Thinking.
CALLIOPE: About what?
JOE: Yesterday I worked on search engine optimization (SEO), what it is all about and how to do it.
CALLIOPE: And?
JOE: As I was considering what to write this morning, the term "brain optimization" popped into my mind.
CALLIOPE: What do you mean by it?
JOE: How should I know. I've never heard these two words together before.
CALLIOPE: Then speculate?
JOE: Fair enough. I found a definition of SEO yesterday, "altering and improving the natural search listings that will be returned for various keywords and phrases."
CALLIOPE: Sounds rather stodgy to me. How could it apply to brains?
JOE: We could arrange our brains to respond to others by giving something important to them.
CALLIOPE: Interesting.
JOE: I think we often tell people what's important to us and forget about their needs. Something to work on. Talk with you tomorrow.

 

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Wondering about suicide bombers.
CALLIOPE: What brings them to mind?
JOE: A program I happened on this morning on TV about the psychology of suicide bombers.
CALLIOPE: What was the jist?
JOE: Sometimes cells of people with similar thinking form bonds not necessarily at the behest of al Qaeda or other influence.
CALLIOPE: How do they get to suicide bombing?
JOE: They seem to form tight bonds beyond consideration of family or even strangers and depersonalize others. The group bond becomes the only thing in their life.
CALLIOPE: How does the suicide part fit it?
JOE: If they explained that, I missed it. The program stressed the importance of the group bond but did not address other motivation.
CALLIOPE: Does it make sense to you?
JOE: No. But then I'm not a suicide bomber. It's hard for me to even imagine.
CALLIOPE: Perhaps it is too complex to understand. Once people explode themselves it's too late to explore their motivation.
JOE: I agree. Another of life's mysteries at least for now. Talk with you tomorrow.


 

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: I went to bed last night mad at myself for not accomplishing much.
CALLIOPE: How did that come about.
JOE: First I woke up tired after going to bed late Sunday night. My store of energy was nowhere to be found.
CALLIOPE: How did you spend the day?
JOE: Watching television in the morning and doing yard work in the afternoon.
CALLIOPE: Was it a total loss?
JOE: I realized this morning that it wasn't. The exercise of course was good for me. On TV I watched classic movies and studied their approach and technique. I also looked at the many commercials from a marketing point of view.
CALLIOPE: So you did accomplish something.
JOE: I didn't produce anything but did recharge my creative batteries much as a field is rejuvenated by being allowed to lie fallow for a time.
CALLIOPE: Is your field still fallow?
JOE: Not this morning. I plan to get back to work exploring several projects on the coals.
CALLIOPE: That's the spirit.
JOE: Talk with you tomorrow.

 

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. Ready for another week?
JOE: I am.
CALLIOPE: What have you been up to over the weekend?
JOE: I started reading Oliver Sacks' book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.
CALLIOPE: What did you discover?
JOE: A provocative line toward the beginning raising a question about what use music is and why does it exist and enchant us. Then I spent Saturday evening enchanted by the Dady Brothers, Roxanne Ziegler and Irish Dancers.
CALLIOPE: To what end?
JOE: I reached the conclusion that sometimes words fail us and we must think and communicate in other ways.
CALLIOPE: As a champion of epic poetry, I must remind you that the arts were originally ways of relating our heritage, ideas and culture.
JOE: No doubt. But there is something else too. Even writing does not just convey information. It touches our souls and hearts and brings us together.
CALLIOPE: So you see the arts, including literature as a way for our minds and souls to communicate?
JOE: I do. I'm not sure I can explain it any further. Maybe it is something to contemplate without words.
CALLIOPE: Perhaps so. Let's both meditate on it.
JOE: Agreed. Talk with you tomorrow.

 

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Quite good.
CALLIOPE: What have you been up to?
JOE: My major accomplishment yesterday was completing a critique of a friend's new book. I also posted my Sliding Otter News newsletter to my mailing list although I still need to post it to my website.
CALLIOPE: Sounds like you have been busy.
JOE: I have. I also found some good information in Internet marketing and development of keywords. Steve Weber also sent me a very useful link for small business resources at http://www.monstersmallbusiness.com.
CALLIOPE: So you social networking is paying off.
JOE: It is. Also Writers Digest recently opened a site for writers at http://writersdigest.ning.com. It is already quite active and appears to be a very promising on-line community. I'm excited about it.
CALLIOPE: It's about time you got excited.
JOE: I agree. Sometimes I seem to just plod along. It's nice to have some enthusiasm.
CALLIOPE: Use it to good advantage.
JOE: I will. Talk with you on Monday.


 

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Fine. Everything seems in order and I have no distractions facing me today.
CALLIOPE: Glad to hear it. What do you have planned?
JOE: Getting back to work.
CALLIOPE: Specifics please.
JOE: I have been gathering materials about search engine optimization and plan to start using them to my advantage.
CALLIOPE: Anything that still puzzles you?
JOE: I received a post from E-zine which listed search terms which their visitors used to find my articles.
CALLIOPE: Interesting.
JOE: I thought so. If I could find such a listing for terms visitors to my web site use, I would be quite grateful.
CALLIOPE: Where could you find such a list?
JOE: I'm not sure I could. So far I don't know how to look other than using a trial and error keyword program through Google keywords.
CALLIOPE: Something to explore.
JOE: There's always something. Talk with you tomorrow.

 

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. What are you thinking about today?
JOE: Distractions. I have been reading what Julia Cameron has to say about necessary surroundings for writing.
CALLIOPE: What does she have to say?
JOE: Among other things that there is no ideal writing environment. Even if there were, it would not guarantee that our writing would be any better than in the midst of distractions.
CALLIOPE: What do you think?
JOE: I think she's right. I sometimes dream of an ideal writing environment. Before you ask, it would be a seaside villa in the Caribbean with a breeze strong enough to rustle but not rumple the pages I am working on.
CALLIOPE: Have you ever had that experience?
JOE: I've been in such an environment, but found it too peaceful to bother writing. There's something about the bustle of everyday life which stirs me to action.
CALLIOPE: How so?
JOE: Everyday events give me topics for my columns and also a context for other writing.
CALLIOPE: Don't they distract you as well?
JOE: They do but the also keep me from getting bored with long hours of writing.
CALLIOPE: I guess there is no ideal context for writing.
JOE: Not that I know of, but I keep plugging along. Talk with you tomorrow.

 

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. What's on your mind today?
JOE: Suffering?
CALLIOPE: Please elaborate.
JOE: I'd be glad to. As I attended Laney's wake and funeral, I kept thinking of all the suffering he endured over the last few months in particular.
CALLIOPE: Did you have any particular questions?
JOE: I wondered about the point of all his suffering. Was it for any particular purpose?
CALLIOPE: You're not the first person who has puzzled about this issue?
JOE: I know. I have heard quite a bit about it over the years but nothing which adequately explains it.
CALLIOPE: You know that pain signals that something is wrong and needs corrective action.
JOE: I do. Where I get stuck is if nothing can be done.
CALLIOPE: Maybe the answers are just not evident yet and pain is an invitation to the medical community to keep searching.
JOE: That makes some sense. But it doesn't seem to be much benefit to the person suffering.
CALLIOPE: I can't argue there. Somethings are beyond our understanding.
JOE: I realize that. I guess it's just one of life's mysteries at least for now. Talk with you tomorrow.