Oh my.
That Australian breakdancing woman.
What was she thinking?
I feel kind of sorry for her.
She’ll never live this down.
Her performance made a mockery of the event.
How in the world did she make the team?
Aren’t there qualifying standards for every sport?
Olympic medal winners can land some great endorsement deals.
Competitors take it seriously.
She took an opportunity away from someone who might have placed.
Whoever admitted her onto that team should be penalized.
Compare her to that Turkish pistol shooting guy.
He used minimal safety gear.
He wore no uniform other than jeans and a T-shirt.
He competed nonchalantly with his free hand in his pocket.
And he won the silver medal.
Then he left.
He’s the embodiment of eats, shoots, and leaves.
Here’s the thing that I always tell my creative writing students.
It’s OK to break the rules.
But you have to know the rules in order to break them well.
Otherwise, you’ll lose control.
This is why we study basic grammar, spelling, punctuation, and story structure.
The breakdancing gal didn’t know what she was doing when she broke the rules.
The pistol guy did.
And that made all the difference.
Liz Brenner
Everyone has a story to tell.
Even you.
Especially you.
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