In his facebook status update three days ago, County Councilperson Calvin Ball quoted Edith Lovejoy Pierce in his status update, “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.”
This little quote was Edith’s moment in time. Do a Google search on her and this is what comes up most frequently.
Anyway…
I commented to Calvin that the trick was nailing that first sentence. Any writer understands the importance of that first sentence (It was a dark and stormy night…) in capturing a reader’s attention. Ever since I read Edith’s words I’ve rolled that thought around in my head and played with the metaphor. Can I capture in one sentence, the hopes and aspirations for the coming year?
Probably not. That’s a tall order and I’m not that good of a writer. Instead, last night, as I sipped a glass of wine and cranked up Michael Franti’s tune “Hey Hey Hey” I discovered the words I was looking for:
“Hey, hey, hey, no matter how life is today
There’s just one thing that I got to say
I won’t let another moment slip away”
And just like that, there they were, the first words for my book of 2011, I won't let another moment slip away.
Happy New Year Everyone!
