Opening Lines to the esteemed Judges of the Writing Competition.
- Bipolar Disorder. Who is not afraid to admit they have it ?
Bipolar Disorder is more common than you think. It is well worth getting treated for the condition.
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE. BEWARE THE OPENING LINES!
"If you're going to read this, don't bother."
I know you want me to plead my case. Come up with a satisfying pitch. A satisfying opening line. As to why I should win this competition. Stop the Press, Hold the Bus, here it is.
I am going to have to appeal to your sense of justice and sympathy as I try and cobble this together.
Did you know all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
"'To be born again,' sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, 'first you have to die.'"
It has been four long interesting years now since I made my move to Brisbane. Four years also, since I started from scratch at Hubpages;
Yes I opened my account at Hubpages from The Brisbane City Library public computers. That's right I started writing articles at Hubpages only weeks of being in a medically diagnosed manic state. In the aftermath I am convinced that writing articles on Hubpages helped my condition.
Four years when unknown to you I guess I lost my mind;. Went completely insane.
"True! - nervous - very, very nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
Why I here you say would I make such a statement.
A state or process of sheer desperation? Well the answer is not only had my uninsured car been stolen. from me whilst residing on the beautiful Gold Coast but also I because of the stress of losing my car losing my job I entered into a dangerous episode of Mania.
Of all the losses I have incurred; losing my mind was the most frightening.
"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
Losing the very thing that would enable me to fix myself escaped from me. Its one thing to have ones hard earnest essential taken away from one in a reckless and careless criminal act but to lose one’s mind in the aftermath just adds insult to injury. "My suffering left me sad and gloomy."
I wandered the streets of Brisbane at all hours of the day or night? Seeking answers, seeking truth, seeking spiritual guidance.
"For a long time, I went to bed early."
"The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new...”
"A voice comes to one in the dark." It was the peel of the newly tuned church bells of St John’s that gave me some reprieve. respite amongst its Heildon Sandstone walls.
"I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice - not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death. “but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.'
Now what I want is, Facts.'
Somehow the sermons told me not to gloat over glossy magazines and that 'A Revelation' was more than just a brand of suitcase. Yes I was saved for a little while. The light threatened to go out permanently but at a strike to midnight was given a reprieve, time out to regroup restore and take on all comers from near and afar. I managed to secure some temporary affordable accommodation:
"A squat grey building of only thirty-four storey’s. Over the main entrance the words “Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” and, in a shield, the World State's Motto: “Community, Identity, and Stability”.
Albeit it is was not the Hilton it was enough to give me the necessary shut eye and REM sleep to restore a semblance of order to disrupt thoughts and mood swings.
I know you want to know what this has got to do with art. Don't you think this is 'poetic justice'. I had been wronged and somehow forces beyond all knowledge rectified the wrongs.
Surely there is more to life than one line opening satisfying statements?
Give peace, hope and love to a troubled mind. Moreover the episode enable me to engage in artistic activities that were previously not possible; On the Gold Coast.
The Gallery of Modern Art allowed me to interact with 21st century Art. The and cultural aspects including Andy Warhol, Picasso, Valentino: All of whom held major exhibitions in the last three years. Such distractions gave me much valued respite from my troubles. Further I became a volunteer and a bell ringer for the Brisbane Writers Festival. Was inspired by the likes of writers of such as 'The Norman Doige MD. who wrote the bestseller The Brain that Changes itself." Somehow Dr Doige's insight and research gave me the space to accept who I was. there was hope-even though we never personally discussed my case.
"My purpose is to tell of bodies which have been transformed into shapes of a different kind." .
That there was hope that I would overcome the difficulties which beset me.
For some time as I walked the streets, sidewalks and parks along the Brisbane River with no direction, life did become hopeless. I had little money and only time to stop at soup kitchens to fill with the basic sustenance on offer. Many a time my walks were interupted by the legendary Queensland storms.
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets, rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."
"you must go on, I can’t go on, and I’ll go on."
What will be placed on my tombstone?
"He loved Big Brother."