Mid-January Musings

JUST READ: "Riding With The Blue Moth," a triumphant account of Bill Hancock's cross country bike ride as he battled the incessant blue moth of grief. Hancock lost his son Will in the tragic Oklahoma State basketball team plane crash in January of 2001. In a quest for relief from the constant despair and in need perhaps of a challenge to redirect his life he rode on bicycle from southern California to Georgia during the summer of that very year. An inspiring testament to the love of family and the lessons that can always be learned even in the darkest of times, Hancock's horrible loss is turned into a positive experience for the rest of us. Maybe that is one of the true divine acts of life - to rise above personal setback and offer good to those wishing to receive it. I must say that the events of that gloomy Saturday resonate personally inside me as I had undeniable premonitions and weird signs from earlier in the day. Although I feel compelled to admit it I do not feel comfortable in elaborating further in this format. Suffice it to say that in some small way I do feel a connection to Hancock and greatly admire his grace and humanity.

READING NOW: Finishing up the "Best Short Stories Of 2005" collection. At this point "Death Defier" by Tom Bissell is my favorite but I still have 5 or 6 stories to read yet.

READING NEXT: Anne Rice's "Christ Out Of Egypt."

JUST SAW: "Munich" and "Brokeback Mountain." "Munich" is an incredible cinematic statement regarding the state of world affairs. The bottom line, of course, is that Revenge is an empty proposition because the cursed delineation of who-did-what-to-who-first winds way back to the Big Bang. So if anyone is to blame it's the damned creator who obviously has gotta go! In the meantime, it takes a Real Man willing to sacrafice to stop the insanity right here and now and you gotta question the availability of such a human being. "Brokeback Mountain" strikes me more as a story of Regret than blatant homosexual wanderlust. Something that we can all relate to regardless of the context provided by the film. Regret full of unhappiness, restlessness, speculating on what might have been. Regret full of despair as your life glides by and you never actually got on it for the ride. Remember this: Revenge is empty but Regret is full.

JUST FINISHED WRITING: The Ruminator. Actually, a first draft, I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with it and that's because I'm not sure exactly what I want to say with it. I'll come back to it soon.

WILL START EDITING & EXPANDING: The Lost Child. Whew! There is alot of work to be done here. Some scrapping, a little weeding, some molding, and without question a bunch of new growth. Haven't touched it since the end of NaNoWriMo. The time has come.

JUST RECENTLY STARTED: a new story about a young woman coming home from the west coast for the holidays. Lots of familial turmoil and issues. Plus the family farm goes up in flames (see Oklahoma Burning). No title yet.