I honestly forgot what day it was. I’m on vacation and the days have begun to blur… plus, there are so many cogs whirring in the background I’m beginning to feel like I’m caught inside a clock and time is outside pressing in.
I’m being vague, but life is in motion for me, and mine. I’ll explain more, probably next week. For now? I’m going down the road less traveled. Behind me, the intersection has already vanished into the mists of time, the way they do. You can’t go back. You can only go forward. Onward, upward, and further in.
Lewis’s Last Battle made less sense to me as a young reader than it does now. As I am on the peak of middle aged (genetically speaking for myself) and looking at the long downhill slide into senescence. Lewis bears re-reading. Which I need to make time for. The rest of this month is controlled chaos. At least, I’m hoping to keep it controlled!
The last battle, the one with time, and age. The slow erosion of ability. Of memory (I’m so sorry I didn’t post on time!). Of mental elasticity. We embrace change as a young person. We avoid it and dread it as we get older. But change is necessary.
Change makes a story worth reading. Change makes a life worth living. Even if it is painful for a season. Less painful to read, at least. And we learn from what we read. We can recognize mistakes and avoid them, as modeled by fictional characters. Including what happens to the unchanging human who refuses to grow, and transform as life flows around them.
I’ll pick up writing once the flood-tide of life ebbs a bit. In the meantime, I’m picking up story ideas. Because that’s what writers do with the tsunami of life when it threatens to drown them in chaos.
Mad Genius Club 
*hugs* You’re fine! Just be wary of drinking things brewed by caterpillars… but if you do, I throw tea parties!
You hope to control the chaos. And the chaos laughs.
“I think we’ve thought of everything.”
*faint, maniacal laughter echoes, almost masked by the wind. Almost*
I really like that picture! There’s a fiber artist whose name escapes me just now, who creates images like that in Photoshop, prints them onto fabric and quilts them. I can see quilting that picture with blue and purple Sulky Holographic Sliver in the blue shadows… oh, where’s a wide format printer when you need one?
what is vay-kay-shun
I’ve heard that it is what $DEITY$ gives you after you die. But only if you’ve been good.
The White Rabbit generally checks his pocket watch at this point.
But since this isn’t a Very Important Date…
I deal with change better now than when I was younger. I have experience with it, and know that however much I grumble it’ll be better, or at least different and interesting.
I think age is one reason that I’m sick and tired of Hero’s Journey stories – at least those that start with teenagers. Doctor Inferno is a fun exception to the “young hero” story.
I’ve noticed something similar in music: The lyrics tend to become irrelevant after 30. Why can’t someone write/sing about adult issues? My four year old said a four letter word is the closest I can think of, right now.
I suppose paying bills, doing yard work, and picking up Legos don’t make good song/story fodder.
Well, there is some music but it’s not common. I get tired of the same old “loving or losing” lyrics.
A few that are a bit different (I won’t say family themes, like picking up legos, but at least a bit different):
– Maria Ostiz (Spanish)
– Aaron Tippon (country, very much an acquired taste, but some fun songs like Working Man’s PhD)
– Gretchen Peters (country, songwriter, but her solo career went nowhere IIRC)
– Chris LeDoux (cowboy country)
Maybe it’s partly advertising: advertisers often want a young demographic, so they can try to hook consumers early. (And, yes, I think advertisers are often pretty stupid).
The problem with fully adult heroes is that, while you can deal with it, you do have to face the issue that either your hero is not doing his other responsibilities while he’s heroing, or he managed to get to a fully adult age without acquiring any responsibilities.
It gets harder to write characters who have two (or more) kids, a job, parents, friends, groceries, car problems, and the like. Some genres make it work, others . . . Romance? Some sub-sub-genres, or the “adult kids, Mom gets second chance at love” seems to be popular among trad-pub titles.
Yeah, my heroes seem to be getting older. Still lagging me by a ways, but the current fellow’s fifty.