And More Education

I am trying to get over a severe attack of writer's block. That is neither here nor there, except that the cure is worse than the disease. I found a book which suggested several ways to get words (any words) on paper. The most fun--and the most alarming--exercise so far is a redo of a game my sister taught me a year or two ago. You open the dictionary at random, latch onto the first word you see, and spend five minutes madly writing anything that the word brings to mind. Well, I'll tell you what! I opened the dictionary at random and the word I got was diadromous. Nice, eh? So I wrote:

A fish, if it is diadromous, spends its life running back and forth between
fresh water and salt water. Well, probably not running--even a diadromous
walking catfish probably couldn't run. . .I feel kind of like that
sometimes--migratory, I mean, not like a walking catfish. Going from one place
to another, but always knowing someday it will be time to pack up and leave
again. I do hate packing, and so would a walking catfish, diadromous (I still
can't spell that) or not, if it had any sense. . .

No doubt I could have added an extra sentence or two had I not had to take up time repeatedly to look up the spelling of diadromous, but there you have it. With cures like that, no wonder I let myself think I have trouble writing!