Saturday, January 10, 2009

That's not a windstorm.....

....it's ME, sighing with relief. All the busy and all the fussy and all the anticipation that lead up to the holidays are past, and so are the holidays. I love 'em, but the older I get the happier I am with my good ol' routine, with my normal daily round (or what passes for normal anyway).

2009! I remember sitting in my little desk at Eugene Field Elementary School in Minneapolis -- it must have been about 1951, and thinking, for some reason, "I wonder if I'll still be alive when it goes from 19-- to 20--?" I also remember being just tickled when we could finally write "1956", although I've no idea why. No, wait -- I think I turned 13 that year, maybe that was it.

And following that thought - when I WAS 13 my sister was away at college and I had my parents and the house to myself as though I were an only child. The only thing I really remember of that was that, a few days after she'd left (she went to school in Ann Arbor) Mom and Dad and I went to try out a new thing in our neighborhood: a PIZZA place! And of that? What I remember most was the novelty of being out for dinner (a rarity) AND of it being "just the three of us". Hmmm....

(Have I ever pointed out, here, that I tend to DIGRESS? I'll apologize right here for it because it's going to happen again. And again.)

Now then - my NaNoWriMo novel. Can you believe it? I still haven't just gone back and read it straight through!! I might be just a little bit afraid to -- but the Husband has. He said he liked it, and did say that it would be worth going back to edit. It was pretty clear to him that there were vast sections where I'd been really trying for word count (well fer SHER) but it was his opinion that there may be a salvageable story in there.

I'm not much one for Resolutions; seems to me they're self-defeating. But I think that I'll make a Decision for the New Year, and that's to do it. To go back, to resurrect those characters, and to make a real effort to get into that story armed with vinegar and water, crumpled newspapers, and a stout broom and see what I have left at the end. It COULD be that I'll tidy here, polish there, rearrange something -- and wind up with "The End". But if the experience of editing it is even HALF the learning that the writing was, I'll still be ahead of the game.

I really do like the feeling of a new year beginning and all the effluvia of the last year gone and blown away. This year, of course, there's much to be optimistic about, not the least of which is the change to a cognizant, intelligent, clear-thinking young man in the White House, which fills me with a confidance I'd all but forgotten.

The economy is in the toilet (and guess what, it's been flushed) but MAYBE, just MAYBE, folks will look around and recognize their WEALTH, which has been hidden under all the STUFF. Instead of going out to a restaurant maybe some families will gather around their supper tables again.

Perhaps instead of agonizing over a ton of new clothes because the season has turned, girls will get creative and realize that they have an infinite number of new outfits already - all they have to do is pair things up differently or add one of the many scarves........

I think what I'm thinking is this: Husband and I have always said "We're absolutely as rich as Croesius - we just don't have much money" and I think that would be true of everyone if they only paused a moment and thought about it. Two quotations come to me, both popularized during the Depression (and as a writer, and one not very sharp about maths, I'm not sure what the difference is between then and now in the scheme of things):

"Wear it out, use it up, make it do or do without". Just take recycling a little further than we have been and it's a win-win-win-win-win.

"Do and say the kindest thing, always in the kindest way". That was on classroom walls for many, many years. It's the Golden Rule, it's the Wiccan Rede, it's just simply the way it should be.

Now then - my Writers' Group meets on Monday, and I have some work to do. I don't know if I'll begin taking "the novel" to that or not, but I may; otherwise, it's going to be a very writerly weekend.

Oh - and to anyone who may be reading this: I do hope that this new year brings you contentment, delight, curiosity, opportunity, optimism, enthusiasm and laughter. And prosperity, of whichever sort brings you the most of the aforementioned!

1 comment:

Jamwes said...

I haven't gotten around to reading mine through yet either. If you want to we can always just swap them and read each others. I finally got around to finishing mine today too, not a great ending, but its an ending.

I hope that the new year brings you good times and all that jazz as well.