9 January
A letter sent
to Writing Magazine asks, 'A is a
writer, a writer?' Good question. Yet most jobs have a similar question. In
1980 I worked at Courtalds Acetate as a press changer. This involved removing
large 'dressings', about 75cm by 75cm from in between a number of large metal
plates which weighed in at around 100kilos each. We working in a pair, no one
man could do the job on his own - or even thought of it. Once removed we had
replace the dressings with a new set. It was a dirty smelly job that none us
really liked but it was the basic job in the dope department. The guy I normally
team up with was called Alan Radcliffe and between us we very good at the job.
Yet we were never accepted as press changers simply because we never managed to
get our fingers trapped between two plates. Daft eh?
I once heard
of a photographer who talking to a writer. The writers says, 'You must have a
very good camera to produce photos like these.' His rely was, 'And you must
have a very good type writer to produce the books you publish'. Yes, I suppose
you have heard it before. But it did raise a memory from the 1980s when I used
to use an Instamatic camera, the only camera we could afford at that time. We
then cobbled together the cash for a second hand Olympus OM10 and we showed my
mother a few photos of our son Tom. She asked what camera I had used to get
them. She saw the better quality straight away. Anyway ...
Getting back
to the writing angle here ... As an OU student I used to write my assignments,
sometimes up to 4000 words too. So did that make me a writer? Or a student who
wrote, or a writer who studied? And anyway, I'm 'writing' this blog in a Word
doc on a PC. So does that make me a computer operator, a typist or a writer? I have been published, a church
history of the Baptist church I was a member of as well as a number of letters
that have appeared in the local News.
But does it really matter? Would being called a writer actually make your work
better or lift it out of obscurity into the light of the writing world?
I'm sure it
wouldn't. It's just some snobs way of putting down another person who is
working just as hard as they but haven't had to luck to be published yet. Am I
writer then? Yes, I am ... and sod the
snobs!!!
As an aside,
in photo competition entrants are not called photographers, no, they are
authors because the word photography means 'writing with light'. See, it's all
crap.
So now I have
find a photo ... errr, no I don't, today I am combining a photo and a funny thanks
to the Sage ...
Most
people today think it improper to discipline children, so I have tried other
methods to control my kids when they have had one of 'those moments.'
Since I'm
a pilot, one method that I have found very effective is for me to just take the
child for a short flight during which I say nothing and give the child the
opportunity to reflect
on his or
her behaviour.
I don't
know whether it's the steady vibration from the engines, or just the time away
from any distractions such as TV, video games, computer, iPod, etc.
Either
way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our flight together. I believe
that eye to eye contact during these sessions is an important element in
achieving
the
desired results.
I've
included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would
like to use the technique
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