Defining the Problem

Some years ago, I thought it clever to try to write a book of comic aphorisms. I purchased a little Mead Notebook, 9 1/2 x 6 in size, for the princely sum of 1 dollar and 15 cents. Then, in pencil, I began to write little one and two line "pithy sayings". Of all my various attempts to write witty material, I believe this is my nadir, and yet I'm fond of many of the phrases. I suppose I thought that because I speak and write so much in aphorism and trite saying, I would profit by just devoting myself to the form. Suffice it to say that this way of defining the problem did not work. But it did get me thinking about defining the problem, and what a difference that can make in how one faces anything. I thought I'd expand on this, using some of my aphorisms as non-sequitur headings. ( The gods exist--that's the devil of it--Jean Cocteau )