What I've Learned 007: Don't Watch The PG-13 Version.

Continuing an ongoing series of creative writing exercises inspired by Esquire's "What I've Learned" articles. This time, I used an interview with Kelsey Grammer. The first few words of each paragraph of the feature (in italics below) serve as prompts for my own answers.

bar room glow

• Prayer is when you place your soul right on the table and ask God to take a look.
  
  
• I don't think dessert was originally meant to take up more than a saucer's worth of space. I'm looking at you, Cheesecake Factory.
  
  
• I didn't have a clue as to what I wanted to do with my life when I graduated from college. Now, I have a career path, but I've never let it define who I am. Life is so much more than work.
  
  
• I've survived Auto-Tune, and I'm stronger for it.
  
  
• The simplest way to make me happy is to put on a song that I like. Then, together, we dance, sing, bob our heads, or make exaggerated hip-hop hand gestures.
  
  
• The audience can be a fickle beast. Make sure you know WTF you're doing when you're on stage. Even when we've done exactly this, it's never been a guarantee of success.
  
  
• The hardest part of songwriting, like most other things, is actually starting. I had writer's block for several months and I'm just now beginning to overcome it. Interestingly, it coincided with several other things going on in my life, so I take it as a good sign that things are looking up.
  
  
• Have I been asleep all this time? Sometimes I really think so, and it's hard to wake up. Reality is strange sometimes.
  
  
• Part of what's great about the weather in the Northwest is that you learn to never take the sunshine for granted. Sunny days are like Christmas.
  
  
• There's almost nothing quite like trying to sincerely answer a little kid's question, and coming up with absolutely nothing except "I don't know." It's humbling and deeply hilarious at the same time. This however is a rare experience since I'm almost always making things up.
  
  
• The human experience is supposed to be NC-17. Don't watch the PG-13 version.
  
  
• What I can control isn't much. But it's enough. The important thing I took away from this realization is that it always has been.
  
  
• It's the way of the world to see how far it can push you. To me, a successful life results from deciding whether to push back, or adapt.