Yes, I’m at a bowling alley.

And watching gutter ball after gutter bowl, I naturally thought of writing. What else?

First we must define the purpose of a gutter.  It’s to remove waste or unwanted or undesirable garbage far away from one location so that waste can end up with a bird of the same feather. (Or something like that.)

So why do so any writers, artists, performers stand in the gutter while producing their work?

Granted, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure – just ask any gar(b)age sale aficionado.

But isn’t that like saying some people would have just as much fun in a septic tank than in a tidal pool on Hawaii?

Why have we morphed to the least common denominator.  Too many movies, shows, songs, books, assume an audience in the gutter that will laugh at their shallowness or their debasing of women or their drug reference or their language or their ?… .  And I suppose, to a degree, they are right. We have a culture that has sunk into the gutter. Don’t believe me? Ask someone over 70 years old about the devolution of American culture. (Now I know, I know. If you want to bring up the film “Pleasantville”, that’s fine. I know that every generation had their issues. But is it not obvious that we live in “Crass-ville”?)

Haven’t we grown up from the rebelliousness of sex, drugs, and Rock’n Roll?

Just because you can debase women doesn’t mean you should. But I guess that’s the point. There doesn’t need to be a reason to stand in the gutter. Some people just find it enjoyable. Well, more power to them. (Actually, I hope less power to them.)

I cannot nor do I want to control what other people do. I can only think about my own writing. I don’t want to take the route of least resistance just to shock or get a laugh. I want to take the hard road. The road where I have to think and think and think my way of it.

This post doesn’t mean that I want all “sweetness and light” – anyone who has read my novel can attest to that. I love the hard themes, the hard situations, the big questions. But I want to tackle these in such a way to make people think, and not just to get a knee-jerk reaction.

Whether I accomplish that or not?  Well, once again, I’ll leave that up to my readers.

But I am trying.

No gutter balls for me. I’m going for the strike.