Another Book Writes Itself

The last blog entry was going to end the last book with a quote from the end of the LOTR book series about the elves and other folks sailing the seas to another shore because it was the end of one era but I think the end it wrote itself was good enough.

And now a new book steps forward, wiping away the dust and dirt of the "country boy" character to find a new way to create a world parallel to this one.

Meanwhile, I recover from the post-book depression that overwhelmed me the past few days, depression that leads to thoughts of my mortal end and asks what do I have to show for myself but the results of my output.  Rhetorical question.  What else do I have to show for myself but my outputs?

Last night, while sitting with three fine couples, including Rebecca and her beau and two other lovely ladies and their gentlemen, I sat with my wife and pondered young adulthood.

When my wife and I first settled into our new home, we played the homeowner roles, my wife paying attention to the interiour of the house and I to the exteriour.  She planned the wallpaper (asking for my input) and I planted trees and flowers (asking for her input).  She sewed and I mowed.  She cut reams of cloth and I cut down old trees.

Our house slowly filled with furniture and our garage with tools.

Three chainsaws, three lawnmowers, a string edge trimmer, power drills and gardening tools later, our two-car garage is a one-car garage.  Our outdoor storage building is packed with material for a rock ledge treehouse I never finished.

Our house is full of furniture, dishes and whatnot we plan to give away to our nieces and nephews (our first niece to get married already receiving some of our furniture), my wife and I not having the privilege of bearing and raising children of our own.

And so I return to my depression and the three couples last night.

We all experience mild periods of depression - natural responses to dead family members, traumatic episodes (divorce, natural disaster) - and some of us experience severe "clinical" depression.  The former, we say, is our bodies' defensive position to step back and rewire the brain/body for future depressive episodes.  The latter is a result of genetic and environmental influences that create abnormal adjustment capabilities.

Last night, I felt depressed and had to deal with strangers.  My usual jovial personality can project a rather normal response to those who don't know me.  For those who know me, my responses are skewed versions of how I normally act.  So, with the three couples at the table, I pretended to be interested in their lives (potty training, an auction bid gone wrong in North Carolina and how the couples met standing out the most) while inside my personality was screaming for help.  I looked into the eyes of every person at the table and all of them seemed to be well-contained within their personality cocoons, unaware of my cry for help.  They did not see me ask for help and then push them away with the action of my eyes.

Perspective makes mild depression less debilitating.  The event that brought us together last night benefited the United Cerebral Palsy association, dedicated to helping people with physical conditions I cannot imagine having.

Thus, despite momentary mental discomfort, I joined my wife in the silent auction bids, winning a few pieces of Galway crystal (beer tankards and candle stands courtesy of a buyer from Avocent), Beleek china (a miniature Irish cottage), a piece of jewelry and something else I can't remember.  We didn't win either of the two buckets of whiskey we'd bid on.  One of the guys at our table won $2000 worth of wine, including two cases and a refrigerated wine cooler.  Another one of the guys, who has Lowe's as a client, noticed that no one had claimed the chainsaws.

We ate our traditional Irish meal - potatoes, corned beef, cabbage, fish and other vegetables - drank our beer (Smithwick's, instead of Guinness) and table wine, and watched the local dance studio's production of young Irish step dancers, their jigs timed with the stage band playing modern versions of traditional Irish tunes.

We saw a few folks we knew and had a good time overall.  Hard to believe a year has passed since we last enjoyed an Irish evening to help folks with CP, all this a day after we ate a huge meal with friends at the Melting Pot to help them celebrate their one year anniversary in Huntsville.

What will this next book discover?  I don't know.  I'm testing a few characters with personality traits from my friends such as Rob, Tammy, Trish, Gary, Kyle, Faith, David, Cheryl, Mary, Charline, Joe, and Keith.  I'll include notes that hint of my friend Ganesh's decision to move back to Malaysia with his wife.  I'll throw in comments from my friends on facebook.  I'll continue to include pop culture even when culture shock (or maybe because it) knocks me into a depressive spin at times.

Some friends of mine think I neglect too much my natural, redheaded Viking fury and its ties to sports and my tendency to enjoy war.  Perhaps they're right - I guess I try to compensate for my desire to rule the world with an iron, dictatorial fist by concentrating on peaceful solutions to world-sized problems.  Otherwise, if this world was mine, I'd rewrite the rules of engagement between cultures, forcing all of us to put family first - the crimes/sins of one person would require payment by or punishment on the person's living forebears and rewriting the history of the person's deceased forebears.  Focus on positive reinforcement of the family with severe punishment for disobeying the family trust.

Anyway, the new book has begun, reflecting the general fiscal and civil conservative family values that most cultures bring to this alternate world.  Anyone in this imaginary world who wants to take risks with large-scale economic changes and fails will pay penalties not found in the real world in which I live.  The men and women in this imaginary world will not tolerate CEOs, boards of directors, politicians, hedge fund operators, media moguls or others who damage society.  Reward and punishment in this imaginary world puts a premium on freedom, including death for those who take freedom into their own hands and destroy the livelihood of others.  Mergers, acquisitions, creative financing, massive government legislation, and religious/populace movements that are not family friendly will be dealt with immediately, ensuring thoughtful consideration of the species as a whole.

The name of the new book: "Put Family First And Personal Freedom Lasts"

As always, I'll consult the Book of the Future and other oracular miracle creators to stay as close to our real future as possible so we can always see ourselves here and imagine what our real world would be like if we change just a few things in this moment.

No future is guaranteed.

Any future is possible.