SPACE, STAINLESS STEEL APPLIANCES, GRANITE COUNTERTOPS AND THE MAN CAVE

On HGTV they're always talking about "space." On House Hunters, the realtor and clients enter a house and undoubtedly someone says, "Oh, golly gee, this is a nice space. I love this space." Or, "This space is great for the man cave." I love all these little words that become overnight successes. For instance, a few years back, everyone needed "closure." Or, this one: "Are we on the same page?" Little words or phrases that catch on like a virus and invade our vocabulary. But space, yep, I like this one. Everyone needs space, especially writers.

Writers need lots of space. We do well in open desk areas with very sharp pencils, plenty of paperclips and lots of blank paper. Our space includes a computer and printer. We sit at our space in a comfortable chair. We sometimes light a fragrant candle to make our space more inviting, more conducive to writing a love scene or some poetic narrative. Writers find mood in space - the more space, the better the mood.

My morning space begins with coffee to my left, computer face-on, desk cleared of everything I don't need to get the morning started. I get on my blog-space and write something that is hopefully inspiring. I then get into my business-space where I knock out a few confirmations for the cabin rentals and do my batches for credit cards. By this time in the morning, I usually have to clear my space of debris; i.e. wadded up papers, a spray of paperclips, a few phone messages that came in while I was on the computer. After clearing my space, I go into my writer-space, or, my pretend space. Here, I make things up, lots of things that hopefully will go permanently into a story. After a few hours of writing, I have to come back to my reality-space. That means housework, cabin cleaning, cooking - all the stuff it takes to keep my outer-space clean and functional. Oh yes, you didn't know that, did you? You have both an inner-space and outer-space. Inner-space is personal, very private, like what psychologists talk about being an arm's length around your body. When people invade your inner space (standing too close) you get uncomfortable and intuitively back away from the intruder. The outer-space thing is everything else that is yours, but you have to maintain - including everything from your 12 speed blender to relationships you have with friends and family.

All this space talk is making me a bit dizzy. But I still like the word. It makes good sense. Even saying the word makes me want to stretch out and get comfortable. As they say on HGTV, "This is a good thing." Nah, that's Martha, isn't it? I'll try again. As they say on HGTV, "This is a good space. I love this space. What a wonderful space." Yep, this word will definitely stick around for a while, unlike granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and people who are being interviewed about their new home while slicing carrots and celery. Oh yeah, like, after the interview they won't just order a pizza and pig out in front of their big-screen TV in the man-cave. That's called pizza-space.