RSS

Monthly Archives: August 2012

Work ethic

27 Aug

“Things we used to do all day, now take us all day to do.” Said by a fifty-something couple this past weekend.

Saturday, my wife and I drove to my father’s home to help him clear some brush, so his drive way would be clear this winter. The temp was about 85 degrees F with moderate humidity and a light breeze. We both stretched properly before we started to work.

Okay, a little back ground is in order. My father lives in the middle of the woods with a state forest on two sides. He and my mother carved their homestead out of the woods several years before my mother passed away. The driveway is about 300 yards long and winds through oak, white pine, wild rose, poplar, and raspberries. The problem with cutting your homestead out of the woods/jungle, is that the woods/jungle has a habit of reclaiming what is feels is rightfully its own. So, if you cut a twenty-foot wide strip, three hundred yards long to use as a drive way, by the end of the summer the path will only be fifteen yards wide. Within a year, if you do nothing, the path will be seven yards wide and so on. The battle to keep the driveway clear goes on year after year. If you ever stop or get lazy, the forest wins.

My father is older and can’t work like he used to. He needs help to fight the unending battle. So, my wife and I started in at 10:00 AM and worked for four hours using an extension chainsaw and loppers. If you have ever done this kind of work, you will understand.

First you have to determine which trees, branches, thickets, etc. need to be removed. Then, you have to fight your way in and get close enough to cut them off. This must be done as far back as possible from the driveway to ensure you don’t have to come back in six weeks and cut it again because it has grown back. You cut and chop and saw and pull for the full 300 yards, on both sides! You stop and look back and see piles of branches, raspberry canes, and vines lying in the middle of the wide-open driveway.

You begin to feel satisfied with your work until you realize that all that brush you worked so hard to cut, needs to be dragged back into the woods far enough so that you can’t see it from the driveway. This is when you really wish you were twenty or thirty years younger.

After uncounted trips, dragging the debris back into the woods and creating head-high brush piles that the rabbits and grouse will soon make their home, you finally throw that last twig onto the last pile. You arm drops to your side. There is a constant stream of sweat running from the bill of your baseball cap. Your arms look more like hamburger than you remembered due to the thorns from the raspberries and wild rose branches stripping the top few layers of skin away. You stagger back out onto the driveway and smile with satisfaction try to suck in enough air to keep you heart from pounding through your chest wall.

I said to my wife, “I’m getting too old for this shit!”

My wife looked at me and said, “Let’s get something to drink and eat. Then, I’m going to take a long shower.”

“Sounds like a plan dear.”

We leaned on each other as we walked down to the waiting van where my dad had been supervising the operation. During a late lunch, I asked my dad why he didn’t hire some young energetic high school footballers to come out and clean this up for him.

He told us that he and two of his “neighbors” had been looking for some young people to hire to do a variety of jobs for over a month. But, no one was interested. I was shocked!

Now, what high school kid could not use a couple hundred dollars for few hours work? Really? Are they so busy looking at their $300 iPhones that mommy and daddy bought for them, that they can’t earn their own gas money? Or, and this one really scares me, are they afraid of a little manual labor? I cannot believe that young people, especially athletes, would not want a summer job that pays better than a fast food restaurant, let’s them be outside to work on their tan, and would help keep them in shape for the upcoming year’s activities.

Am I way off base here or is this just a blip on the radar? Are young people today too comfortable sitting in front of their computers?

 
31 Comments

Posted by on August 27, 2012 in Musings and Odd Thoughts

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Thunder Rolls

20 Aug

I have never thought of myself as a poet. In school we were forced to read, write, memorize, and recite poetry. I never felt comfortable with it. There always seemed to be too many rules, rhyme, meter, flow. I was not that interested in writing back then, mostly sports and girls.

Last week during my writer’s group meeting we were asked to write a Haiku. After it was explained to me, I gave it a whirl. My kind of poetry, short sweet and to the point. But still, not something I felt compelled to do on a regular basis. Then something strange happened.

A few days ago, I the following piece just seemed to flow into my head. It’s the first poetry I have written in thirty-five plus years.

Souls stand on a concrete pond

The pond poured into perfect four-foot squares

A dual river of steel runs through it from horizon to horizon

The thunder rolls

 

Light and bells ring in its coming

Out of the morning mist the steel serpent slithers

Following the river, it seeks to find the waiting souls

The thunder rolls

 

The steel serpent screeches as steel crushes steel

It stops as if looking to feed. Its many maws open wide.

The souls rush into its body as it hisses and breathes

The thunder rolls

 

Finally sated, the steel serpent shutters.

Sluggishly, as if too full to move it begins to slither forward.

It gains speed as it leaves the concrete pond and rushes toward the horizon.

And the thunder rolls.

You never know where or when an idea will hit you. Just be open to what the world has to offer. Have a beautiful week.

 
8 Comments

Posted by on August 20, 2012 in Musings and Odd Thoughts

 

Tags: , , ,

Writing Cross-gender

13 Aug

The other day, a friend asked me an interesting question. Noting that the main character in my short story is a woman, my friend asked, “Why did you use a woman? How can you know what a woman would do in the situations you put her in?”

Uh-oh! this is going to be a tightrope walk.

My response was the best I could come up with on the fly.

“That’s a good question. It was a conscious decision to use a female for a couple of reasons. First, I had never used a female as a main character and I thought it would be fun. Second, it would force me to look at things from a perspective that was outside my comfort zone. It was a challenge I hope I learned something from.”

My friend seemed to accept my answer for now.

Let me lay some ground rules for this discussion..

First, as a man, I know nothing about what goes on inside a woman’s head. Any man who says otherwise is a fool! I say this having spent 31 years living happily with the same woman. There is a sign that hangs in our family room that I try to live by. It says, “There are two theories to arguing with a woman…Neither one works!”

Second, as a man, I know that women don’t have a clue as to what goes on inside a man’s head. Say what you want ladies, but you don’t.

Third, and probably the most important, all men are not alike and all women are not alike. I have worked with women who could out swear, out fight, and out drink ninety percent of the male population, then turn around, put on an evening gown and dazzle that same group of men with charm, grace, and elegance. I have also worked with straight men who could quote every sport statistic, hunt and fish all day, put a tune on the Harley motorcycle and also have that almost magical ability to communicate with women to a point where they have more female bff’s than male.

So, based on this information a possible response to the question asked could be, “It does not matter, we are all basically the same.” Now I did not say it was the right answer, only a possible answer. I think it is way too simplistic and a cop-out.

When I build characters, I consider basic Myers-Briggs personality types. I layer on things like sociopolitical structure, geography, number and type of siblings, birth order, physical features, education, goals, lifetime achievements and traumas. Why on earth would I not consider gender and its effects on personality? How an individual responds to the above listed influences are greatly affected by gender. If my character comes across as a little manly at times, maybe it’s because she grew up in a matriarchal society that values skill at arms. Maybe, she is gender neutral in her sexual orientation. Maybe, I screwed up and had her behave out of character. Hey these things happen. That’s why I edit my drafts, repeatedly.

Like it or not, there are some basic psychological differences between the sexes. I am not an expert on the subject but, as a writer I have various reference materials to assist me when I need help on difficult subjects. Back in 1993 a book came out that seemed to get close to the reality of those differences, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships by John Gray. I found it very interesting how close to the mark he was on how men really are and what makes them tick. I asked my wife and she confirmed that he was close on the women’s side as well. Though nothing is perfect, I refer back to both this book and my wife when I am stuck as to how my character would respond. Between the two I can get a pretty good idea as to how the character should act.

The bottom line is that I want my characters to be real and true to themselves whether they happen to be male, female, or something else (remember, I write fantasy). If a test reader calls me out, that a character is acting out of character, I will look very hard at why I chose those actions. I think that is the best I can do.

Please weigh in on this one. I would love to hear your thoughts.

 
10 Comments

Posted by on August 13, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

Tags: , , , ,