Home Ice

"Have fun! Try Hard!" That was the coach's rallying cry for every pre-Novice hockey game during my son's first year in the sport. "Have fun! Try hard!" I love it. The slogan applies to so much in life work, writing, marriage. If you have fun and try hard, the rest often sorts itself out.

I wrote the slogan in red crayon on a torn piece of paper and taped it to the laptop where I spend my days either teaching creative writing students online or pounding out my own stories. The slogan stands as a reminder that, sure, okay, I will likely never make the writer's equivalent of the NHL and, yes, I know, I cannot expect a pot of gold at the end of the novelist's rainbow. I can, though, enjoy the process. I can take pride in my work. I can always push myself to do better. I can find meaning in the challenge. And those things in and of themselves can be enough. They have to be.

If hockey began and ended with that "Have fun! Try hard!" philosophy, I would have no reservations about my son's participation in the sport.

From Home Ice by Angie Abdou. 2018. ECW Press.