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    A Whole Lot of Nothing: The Long Weekend Review, #7
    A Whole Lot of Nothing: The Long Weekend Review, #7
    A Whole Lot of Nothing: The Long Weekend Review, #7
    Ebook48 pages38 minutes

    A Whole Lot of Nothing: The Long Weekend Review, #7

    By Jeff Campbell and David Macpherson

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    About this ebook

    The Long Weekend Review is a monthly e-zine that allows the writer to do whatever they want, as long as it is written in three days. This month's edition is from Jeff Campbell.

                Jeff writes this of issue seven. "When I started writing 'A Whole Lot of Nothing' I expected it would be a rather head-y series of reflections that mostly focused on my strange relationship with the concept of nothingness and emptiness that I have cultivated over these last couple years. What I found was that nothingness has been a lifelong frenemy. You should read it; it explores the time I had to peel half my face off, what it was like to hang out in the sewers, and how I chickened out of Buddhism in college."

                "A Whole Lot of Nothing" is an examination of faith and memory in a finite world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Macpherson
    Release dateSep 19, 2020
    ISBN9781386757214
    A Whole Lot of Nothing: The Long Weekend Review, #7

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      Book preview

      A Whole Lot of Nothing - Jeff Campbell

      A Whole Lot of Nothing

      Jeff Campbell

      A Whole Lot of Nothing

      The Long Weekend Review 7

      Copyright 2020 by Jeff Campbell

      All rights reserved

      ––––––––

      We are not currently taking submissions

      The Long Weekend Review is a forum for writers to express themselves anyway they feel appropriate, as long as the entire book is completed in three days.

      macphersondavid607@gmail.com

      100pagedash.wordpress.com

      On facebook David’s group is Dave Macpherson is a Writing Stuff.

      Instagram DavidScottMacpherson

      The cover was designed by David Macpherson

      The icon was created by corpus delicti

      The icon was licensed through the Noun Project

      A Whole Lot of Nothing

      Jeff Campbell

      One

      The Easy Way Out

      I was thinking this morning about how the stories we want to tell about ourselves are about the things we know.  The things we are clear on.  The things about ourselves that we wish other people would take up and emulate.

      These are not the stories we actually want to hear about other people, though.  The best case scenario is that this shit is mind numbingly boring.  Why do I want to know about the things you’re good at?  It just reminds me of the places I am lacking.  Why do I want to know about the things you want me to believe?  It’s quite likely that you want me to believe them because you, somewhere, deep down inside don’t believe them yourself.  This act of conviction and conversion is really not about me at all; you have projected out all your fears and insecurities.  When it seems like you are talking to me, it is really yourself you are trying to convince.

      The stories we want to hear about others are the things they are afraid of.  The things that they fear.  The things that they are wrestling with.  The things that they are ashamed of.

      A best case scenario is that at least there is honesty here.  Perhaps we see a bit of ourselves in this fearful other when he makes himself vulnerable to us.  Of course, there’s a less optimistic possibility about our hypothetical audience here.

      Maybe we want to hear about others’ weaknesses and fears not so much because we want to identify with our story teller.  Maybe we want to feel better-than.  Superior.  Over and above for all the ways that they fall short of who they were.

      If everything I were to write might be carved about under this distinction; if this were the most important rubric of all, then I came to realize that the second option is really better and easier for me as a writer.  The second option doesn’t require much soul searching on my part.  It doesn’t require that I ask the tough questions.  It puts the onus on you, my dear reader.  As you read about my foibles and my fears, the things I am afraid of, the things I don’t do very well with, you are the one who will have to work out: are we connecting in my weakness?  Or are we using this as a way to feel bigger, better, and ahead of the game? 

      I guess this is not a particularly diplomatic way to start out.  But I’d

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