Something I Learned Today

For me to be successful as a writer it helps me to think of writing as a daily practice, like yoga, or tai chi. If you move in a certain way enough times, like practicing free throws, you create what's known as muscle memory. Your body learns to do something so well you don't have to think about the act, but can instead perfect (or as close to it as we can come) the art of it.

There are cooks and there are master chefs. There are writers and there are authors. There are basketball players and there is Michael Jordan. To reach that next level you have to learn something new about your craft every day. Either by reading someone else, by writing something you've never written or by learning a simple fact, intellectually you have to be more than you were yesterday.

Today I learned that Canada has two national sports - lacrosse is the official summer sport and ice hockey is the official winter sport. The US has no official sport, but baseball, that greatest of all games, is the national pastime, I don't care how many people watch the NFL or NASCAR.