WTBN session 5 - Silliness clearing writers block

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When inspiration hides, we can step away and wait till it returns. The alternative is to keep writing. Sometimes creativity needs help to arise and we've just keep writing to lever it out - writing the boring, uninspired words till they turn into inspired ones. Or writing nonsense for a while, till that nonsense opens our minds and lets in something more creative. This exercise was to write two silly limericks and then around 500 words on an attribute or an emotion. Here is my example, below:

Little Miss Muffett sat on her tuffit
Then thought, “Oh, what the hell, stuff it!
I need a drink
And time to think.”
So got blind drunk at the pub called Jimmy Ruffitt

Mary had a little lamb
Its face was smeared with jam
It made lots of noise
Then broke all the toys
And then ran off with the naughty old ram

CRAVING EMBARRASSMENT
“I really like feeling embarrassed,” said our yoga teacher, Lilian, chatting to a friend after the session, as we were leaving … as she recounted an embarrassing and hilarious event. “I really like feeling off centre, not quite in control. I can really sense who I am, how I’m feeling. I feel so present to everything.”
Well, I thought, most people strive to avoid embarrassment, to avoid being wrong-footed, to avoid being wrong.
Most of our behaviour, it seems, is directed by our Mr or Mrs Fearless; that part of us that is ever alert to fear and always helping us to fear less – following rules, no matter how insane they are. Avoiding embarrassment. Avoiding not looking good. Avoiding risks. Avoiding rejection. Avoiding standing out. Avoiding feeling anything. Avoiding feeling. Avoiding life.
Some realise that to avoid embarrassment is to not speak up.
To avoid rejection is not to ask.
To avoid risk is to stay safe, stay inert.
To avoid not looking good is to avoid life.
To avoid feelings is to … well, avoid feelings, to step back from all of them – sadness and happiness, anxiety and excitement, drama and peace, rejection and acceptance.
To live in avoidance – in the grip of the Fearlesses – is to live that middle line, the inert line that never wavers, is always predictable, certain and safe. That’s exactly where the Fearlesses want us to be. Safe from diseases and health, safe from hot and cold. Safe from boredom and the unexpected. Safe from judgement and love. Safe from feeling. Safe from life.
Some of us get to an age when nothing matters any more. A stage that we just see frightened little egos running around avoiding fear, avoiding each other, terrified of life.
From the Fearlesses we learn that feeling numb is good and all else is bad. They tell us that it’s best to feel nothing and, as soon as any feelings arise, we’ve got to step back. Stop living. Stop expressing. Stop relating with others. Return to addictions.
The problem is that, sooner or later, we’ll bump into people and situations that arouse our feelings. That’s inevitable.
Then something happens.
Maybe we just become old and stop caring what others think or say.
Maybe we undergo some trauma – divorce, bankruptcy, war, theft, assault – and realise, later, that we’re still alive. Despite the explosion of negative emotions – where Mr and Mrs Fearless didn’t protect us – we’re still functioning, the sun still comes up and the biggest surprise of all … we are able to return to snatches of joy, peace and contentment. Not all the time, probably, but enough happy moments to give us hope of more.
Then we might realise it’s not possible to have a happy thought without a sad one. We can’t have excitement without boredom, peace without drama.
The straight and predictable green line through the middle of all – avoiding all – is