Dreaming of Fail Fest 2014

Thanks for your wisdom in response to yesterday's question. Because of your bon mots, I will post my thoughts on the book I mentioned once I've finished, wrestling with the words to move beyond "Wow, I wish this had been different..." to "Here's where I think we can go as writers who hope to entertain & inspire."  Pray for me :)

On a different (but related) note, a Facebook friend linked to the Epic Fail Pastors Roundtable this morning. I'm laughing at the awesomeness of it...and plotting how to sneak away to Chicago to attend.  No snark intended: it sounds awesome. And funny. Failure demands some funny.

Reading about this makes me see that I'm a little bit in love with failure these days. (Even more so now that I know it has a Wikipedia page!) There is just so much of it! It's the stuff memoirs are made of, so it's great for me, career-wise. And as it turns out, it's part of my God-given skill set.

(And if you're wondering if I'm having a particularly bad week and if you should check on my well-being: don't worry. I'm fine.  Here's what I'm trying to say...)

I think that being good at failure is being willing to try things, and if they don't work out, having the ability to keep chugging along in a positive way (by which I mean: without wrecking everything and everyone in your path.)  Of course, the return to positive takes time--we can't just hit "reset" after a dream gets punctured. And there's much to be said to a season of neutral/just hanging on/survival mode.  Because once you've survived...you've survived. The failure doesn't define you, it becomes part of your story. And that makes us interesting people.

This has me dreaming of lots of Epic Fail Roundtables (Failure Fest? Failapalooza?)--for writers, scientists, accountants, meditation specialists, yoga instructors, librarians. Anyone, really. Imagine the hilarity?! Now imagine the encouragement. I think failure is a subject we can rally around :)

Fail on!