Pull Up A Chair…
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I became hooked on science fiction at the ripe age of eight because of the genius of Yoda. And all the potential of space travel and our own possibilities.
Harrison Ford being a hottie didn’t hurt, either. Something about the snarky boy for me, what can I say?
Through the years, my dad was a voracious reader and my uncle was a huge science fiction buff, who loaned me well-read copies of Asimov and Heinlein, Herbert and de Lint, le Guin and Tolkien and all the authors in between and since.
In my family, reading was what you did in your spare time. And where I escaped…a lot.
I was the sort of child who devoured books. Still am.
You can draw me in with a good story. I’ve always been able to forgive lax writing here or there if the characters or the overall story draw me along. But not very forgiving about what Charles Sheffield used to call "potholes" — details in the story, scientific or otherwise, which are just flat out wrong and could have been easily checked. For Charles, those were usually science errors, but he was a physicist, so you can see where that might have been a wee bit jarring.
Lately, I find myself re-reading some of the classics from my childhood, or searching around the house for a long-neglected copy of something-or-other that we have shelved somewhere.
Searching for a comfort read or for that certainty that I used to have about right and wrong, good and evil, forward and back? No idea.
Whatever it is, though, searching is exactly what I seem to be doing. But, alas, the answers elude me. Perhaps I need to pick up Joseph Campbell again and contemplate the search for some hero’s answers in quests that are not my own, but that’s a discussion for another time.
When life gets more difficult, reaching back to more simplistic days, when the worst of my problems could be solved by picking up a good book, making a cuppa tea, and curling up in a comfy chair for a few hours of escape to some distant land or future tense? Awfully tempting.
It seems like that could be a good answer.
These days, though, the problems facing this country and so many of the people I know aren’t the sort to be easily solved. But regardless, you still have to keep moving forward. And burying myself in despair or anger or whatever else? Just not my way.
Thought we could catch up a bit this morning, and talk about how folks are doing, how they are coping, and what your stress relief strategies tend to be. Or your favorite comfort reads. Whatever. But let’s all take a deep breath and a bit of a break. It’s been feeling lately like far too many of us could use one. Pour yourself another cuppa and pull up a chair…
(YouTube — a Yoda moment of wisdom.)
Good Morning Christy,
I sure remember when Star Wars came out, the movie experience was just awesome. In today’s world, I guess it’s ho-hum, but back then, just wow!