TILTING AT WINDMILLS

I love old movies, English mysteries, and Sherlock Holmes movies. George C. Scott once played a character who believed he was Sherlock Holmes. He dressed the part, talked the same, had a pipe clenched in his teeth most of the time, and called a friend "Watson." His family couldn't handle this obsession and wanted him to be declared insane and committed. Mainly, they want control of his fortune.

Joanne Woodward plays the part of a doctor who is supposed to prove his is insane--or cure him. In the process of her treatment, she falls in love with her "patient." Once in the movie, she asks him if many people call him Holmes? When he admits that scarcely anyone calls him by that name, the doctor asks if that makes him feel all alone.

"It does." "Holmes" admits, but goes on to say, "Still, it doesn't make me wrong."

Don't let anyone destroy your dreams of writing. Believe in yourself. Admit that it might be scary to send your work out for the possibility of rejection, but that you can do it. . . until acceptance. No one knows what you really have in your heart or vision.

Tilt those windmills all you want.