You probably guessed it just from the title. I started this post without any idea at all what I was going to write about. And so I had to rummage around in the back rooms of my silly old brain looking for stuff to put out there that wasn’t too moldy, but definitely had been thoroughly cooked and stored away for a while.
So here is something I know… If you want to make someone pay attention to you, make a joke. You can do that by surprising people with something that they immediately recognize and realize that it is totally backwards to what they saw before. In other words, when I say or write things that make people wrinkle their noses at me, I am not merely being weird. I am being a humorist.
Here is something else I know… If you want to have an idea that is worth having, you need to look at things from a totally different angle. If I want to know myself better, I need to reflect on how Charles Schultz would draw me. I would be half Linus and half Charlie Brown because I am most profound when I have my blanket to comfort me, but things constantly go wrong for me and I see myself as a loser… but I have people who love me, and a dog that battles the Red Baron.
Another thing I know… If you want to make something, you have to follow the rules, and only occasionally break them. This post began with a simple enough rule. It had to have simple statements of things I have learned over the course of my life, and the pictures all had to come from a randomly selected picture file on my laptop. I save all kinds of weirdly chosen and goofy things in my art and memes files. So how dangerous can that rule be? Of course, I also want to put up a bit of my own artwork, and this file that I chose doesn’t seem to have any in it. So, I have to break the rule… but only this one last time.
Now, I know you will probably look at this and think to yourself, “What the hell is wrong with you, Mickey?” Or maybe you will say it out loud in your most disgusted voice. But I do know this… If you are old and you have lived long enough to have learned a thing or two… or possibly three, you can simply start writing and the ideas will be there. And it might turn out to be something you will be glad you wrote and shared. This is simply a thing that I know.
Catch a Falling Star 
Is the furry one the lead singer for Toto? Maybe the dog owner can break into Carry on my wayward son.” Love the Hokey Pokey recovery picture.
😀 You make me laugh, sir.
Likewise.
By the way, if you are half Linus and half Charlie Brown, what would you do on Halloween?
Wait patiently in the pumpkin patch for the little red-haired girl, and when she didn’t show up, say, “Rats!”
But, of course. I was always sad that Charlie Brown would get a rock in his Halloween bag. I would like to think the red-haired girl would fall for old Charlie once he got into high school. She would stand up for him when accosted by bullies.
Have you seen the Bluesky Peanuts movie? He gets the girl like a real movie hero at the end… um, sorry if I spoiled it.
I really like this essay. I might give your methods a try.
I am glad as a retired writing teacher that you recognize something good about my methods, but as an amateur humorist, I still hope you never figure out that I don’t always know what I’m talking about.