Author: Michael Seidel

Science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. Singer (sorry, no shows) & nudist (in my home). Beer, cat, cheese, coffee, pie and wine friend. Left IBM and Silicon Valley for the southern Oregon life but I miss the ocean. We're too far inland. Gotta move.

Sunday’s Theme Music

Today’s theme music is “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to be Right”. Humming along with it as it flowed through my stream this morning during the routines, I thought about the song’s complex, grown-up nature.

I was sixteen when the song was released in 1972 and going through the standard processes involving discovering love and sex. Little did I know how complicated it could all be. The big lie still held about finding someone and falling in love, marrying for laugh, and growing old together. Big cracks were appearing in the big lie. Love and sex, as well as gender identity and sexual orientation are all more complicated than the big lie’s straightforward depiction. Then religion society gets involved – a black man and a white woman? Social norms add new pressures and dimensions.

That’s behind the song. He’s in love with another woman, having an affair and cheating on his wife. And the woman is having an affair with a married man. Both of those are taboo. The man understands that he has commitments. Needs change.

I’m not trying to defend him so much as think about how complicated love, sex, society, marriage and life can be. It’s not as clean and simple as the big lie leads us to believe.

Am I wrong to fall so deeply in love with you
Knowing I got a wife and two little children
Depending on me too
And am I wrong to hunger
for the gentleness of your touch
knowing I got somebody else at home
who needs me just as much

And are you wrong to fall in love
With a married man
And am I wrong trying to hold on
To the best thing I ever had

h/t to songfacts.com

Of course, the other part of this is what it would do to his wife if she discovered his betrayal, and what could result from that, nor what the guilt can do to him and his thinking and psyche.

Many performers and groups have covered this R&B classic, but that original voice and music is seared into my brain. Luther Ingram didn’t write it, but he delivered the sound.

 

 

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Today’s song blasted out of my dreams and into my thinking stream. The dreams were wild, all good things that made me laugh or stand tall as a conquering hero. Nothing undermining, and no anxiety. Great stuff.

So why did this 1985 ballad emerge from that dreamland? I think “Broken Wings” fits it well. Like the dream ended and this was the song that played for me as the credits rolled. It was cool.

BTW, I’d never seen the video until I checked it out today. I was in Egypt, living in a tent when the song was released, part of whirlwind year that had me in stationed in South Carolina, but visiting Jordan, Guam, Korea, New Jersey, Spain, and Egypt. Interesting year.

Here’s Mr. Mister.

 

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Erica Also Said

Today’s quote resonates with me. Agents say they want read your book and feel like they did when they watched Game of Thrones or something on Netflix. Reading descriptions of what they want, they sound like they’re issuing specs for me to use to write my book.

It’s a depressing and destructive exercise, reading what they want, and comparing it to what I’ve written. It reduces the search to exactly this process, thinking about what the audience — the agents — need.

But, as an exercise, it’s helpful for defining my #AWL.

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Floof-de-lis

Floof-de-lis (floofinition) – a housepet in a position among lilies.

In use: “His Yorkie delighted in hiding in the backyard lilies like a floof-de-lis, a trait that endeared the little rescue dog to him.”

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Floofmaging

Floofmaging (floofinition) – a pet’s attempt to claim a person by putting fur on the person’s clothing, typically by sleeping on clothing when the person takes it off and puts it down.

In use: “As soon as he took off his coat and put it on the chair, two cats approached, intent on floofmaging the coat for themself.”

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Eudora Also Said

Yes. Although I say that I write with myself in mind, I mean that I edit and revise to form the sort of story and characters that I enjoy. But Eudora’s quote is the truth for me. I’m just writing for the pleasure of it.

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Raison d’floof

Raison d’floof (floofinition) – the reason or justification for having housepets

In use: “The latest addition was a kitten, which increased the housepet’s population to twelve, including the birds. Their raison d’floof was that the cat needed a home, and they could provide it.”

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