Sometimes I Dream About This

Been thinking about some of the things I shared in the prior post and the knowledge that the rhythm of life was and has been disturbed and decided to write about it.

A blog needs to be more than just a place to show how much you know about writing, marketing and social media. It needs to be somewhere you share parts and pieces of the real you. Not another Facebook where you post half truths about your life and give off an image that may or may not touch upon the real you.

The hardest part is trying to identify the boundaries and determine what lines you are willing to cross and which you allow to remain blurry. We live during a time when blurring the lines isn’t solely because you don’t want to have uncomfortable conversations with people you know but because you don’t want to invite others into your world.

That last part is a reference to the culture of fear we are cultivating. A comment about how different life is now from when I was in high school. Back then you could write works of fiction and not worry about being talked to, investigated or arrested for them.

I am not talking about acts of sedition. I am thinking about what would happen if a child wrote a story about humiliating or killing bullies. I am thinking about science fiction stories where aliens take over the bodies of students and teachers and the good guys have to shoot them.

Some people are so afraid of people they would look at those stories and wonder if maybe they had just discovered a potential serial killer. They wouldn’t necessarily think that they are looking at the product of imagination.

Is that far fetched or is it possible?

I want to say far fetched but sometimes it feels like we are living during a time when people view different as bad and not just different.

Watch What You Say/Write

Some friends tell me to be careful about what I post here because they worry about context or should I say they worry that people will take words out of context.

Don’t know why but I hear Bob Dylan singing Subterranean Homesick Blues, “The pump don’t work, ‘Cause the vandals took the handles” and two thoughts occur to me.

1. I won’t feed the culture of fear by not writing because I am worried that someone might decide my words are a reason not to hire me or because they might view myself/family differently. Those things could happen for any number of reasons.
2. When vandals steal the handles I improvise and find another way to make the pump work. It is not in my nature to just accept what I am told, fed or instructed to believe.

Halloween is this evening. I tease the children about cancelling, ignoring or skipping it in part because I enjoy a quiet evening at home.

But there is a part of me that still enjoys it. Some of it comes from my own memories as a kid and some of it is because it feels like one of the very few moments we see neighbors open their doors and walk around the neighborhood.

There is something nice about that.

 Sometimes I Dream About This

There is much about Field of Dreams that I really enjoy and when I think about it I always wonder about the cornfield. Yeah, I know it is a movie but I am a curious fellow and I want to see what lies behind those first few rows of stalks.

But if you want some insight into some of what I dream about watch the clip below and see behind the curtain.

If I had control of the genie-in-the-lamp and had three wishes one of them might be to have a similar experience to what Spock has below.

Why?

Because I want to talk to the 100 year-old Josh Wilner and ask some questions. Who would know more details about me than me. Who would be better equipped to say “do this, skip that” or “don’t worry about XYZ because of PDQ.”

Part of me says it is sort of ridiculous for some of the reasons that Spock alludes to and because when you have read as much science fiction as I have it is hard not to imagine the gift/curse of knowledge that would come with that.

So maybe the best part would be hearing that it all works out. If I have learned anything about life it is that I can’t spend too much worrying too far ahead because there are too many variables, so I don’t.

Most of my focus is on the present and maybe five years down the road but sometimes it might be nice to hear what happens a bit farther along.