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Writer’s Block, Cat Videos, and an Elephant God
The writing life is strange
It started with a simple case of writer’s block. Maybe not simple, exactly, since this period of blockage had lasted longer than the wait in line at the DMV. I was dealing with it like any writer does: by scrolling through cat videos on YouTube, certain that a feline playing the accordion would be the key to unlocking the next Great American Novel.
After a few days of this, I decided I needed divine inspiration rather than cat wisdom and Googled the phrase “patron saint of writers.” Under normal circumstances I could have just turned to my Muse — all writers have a Muse — but mine is an angry Valkyrie who loves Death Metal and we weren’t speaking at the moment.
Having grown up Catholic, I immediately recognized St. Francis de Sales in the search results; he’s the Catholic patron saint of writers. But the balding, bearded, 16th century portrait that stared out at me was no more inspiring than the orange tabby on the water slide had been. I also saw, right next to St. Francis on page two of the results, Ganesha (or Ganesh, I’ve seen it spelled both ways), the Hindu god who was also, to my surprise, the patron of authors.
There’s no doubt that a deity with the head of an elephant and four arms is an impressive sight, but the image did nothing…
