Jack's Place

Happy New Year!

"Never read any book that is not a year old." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

         By that logic, you should now start reading the books you got for Christmas of 2023. Hi there! Pretty sure I'm the last one to wish you a happy new year, but don't blame me; I didn't put Friday on the 3rd! In any case, here we are in 2025, a year certain to be a turning point in American history. But that's the Big Picture, a scope I can scarcely comprehend. My concern is with the Little Picture, in fact, my little corner of the Little Picture... Mine and yours, and the subject of the ever-popular New Year's Resolution.
         Is anyone still making these? I know I quit decades ago; it's just one more thing to fail at. I understand the attraction, though. A brand new year, a brand new calendar with 365 blank squares filled with promise and the temptation to use them for good. But it's been my experience that that isn't what happens. Quite the opposite, actually. But I can see the attraction; never let it be said that I'm not willing to try something new.
         I've not made a secret of the fact that I've been blocked for years. I have come to terms with the fact that I may be finished writing, that there is nothing left in the tank. But I refuse to go quietly. I have had small, incomplete ideas come to me, produce a minor work here and there, then fizzle out like a wet squib. But I don't want to be finished writing. That's one reason I hang around here doing reviews. I'm hoping that exposure to quality writing will reignite my own interest, and my writing hobby will take off anew. So far it hasn't happened, but I've got another card to play on my quest for that particular jackpot.
         You see, I'm retired, have been for 8½ years. Because there's a ten-year-old inhabiting this broken down old corpse, I put all my chores on a small, personal calendar... because if I don't, nothing will get done! Vacuuming, watering, showering, updating the bank statements, even things like the Thursdays that I don't sign in here because I don't want a big pile of those fake "merit badges" just for checking my email. Because these things happen at different frequencies, there are sometimes days when very little needs to be done. There are nine of those during January. If, instead of sticking my nose in a book or forming my hands around a game controller, I use those days to brainstorm, plot, and, you know, write, I might get the fire lit again. Or, I may find out that there is no fuel left to light anything with. There are thirty-one days this month. If I can't create something in those nine days, then I probably am done. I don't want to be, but then, I don't want to be old, either. There are some choices that you don't get to make.
         How about you? Taking on anything new this year?

Stay inspired,
Taylor...