you just have to think naked . . .

Gypsy Rose Lee on perception. (The Commonplace Book Project)

“You don’t have to be naked to look naked, you just have to think naked.” — Gypsy Rose Lee

Rose Louise Hovick was not talented enough to hold a Vaudeville show on her own after her younger sister, June, eloped. But one day, the strap on her dress broke and her comic attempts to keep covered up brought down the house.

Today would have been Rose’s 108th birthday. Gypsy Rose Lee was born, sometime after that.

I won’t make a judgement call about June and why she ran away. What is known, though, is that she left Vaudeville on the verge of stardom. And her sister was not talented enough to do it without her.

But she kept trying.

She kept trying until she found the thing that she could do well enough to get the success she wanted. In her case, that was a smart, very tease-y striptease that did not include nudity, and humor.

Watch Natalie Wood as Rose and Bette Midler as her mother in Gypsy — a musical based on Rose’s memoirs.

As a writer, I love today’s quote on its face. At first I thought it was something to do with being a writer. Maybe it’s a little like Rose — I don’t have to be sad to make you feel sad. I just have to think sad. Or something like that.

But then I realized something. The idea applies more to a reader. You don’t have to live an experience to experience. You just need to think it. Reading can take you anywhere, make you feel anything. With your brain.

That’s the closest thing to magic that there is.

Rose wrote two mystery novels in the 1940s — the first was called The G-String Murders.

I’ve added her memoir to my list…which is growing kind of alarmingly fast with this Commonplace Book Project!

Here’s my secret weapon for sticking with whatever your thing is.

Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation and the upcoming novel The Astonishing Maybe. She is the original Ninja Writer.