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Sixty · 28 October 2023

Sixty. It is hard to believe that I am turning sixty.

I have always said that age is just a number. Or an attitude. It is not how old you are, but how active and how vibrant you are. But sixty? That is old. Or at least it is getting up there.

Actually, I still think that age is just a number. After all, what is the difference between 60 and 59? One. See. Just a number. And I know people who are older and in better health and better spirits than I am. Then again, it is not about comparisons. It is about the attitude.

(On the other hand, the number sixty is not really the interesting number in my life. The more interesting number is 29. You see, I am on year 29 in the same job. Nearly half of my life doing the same thing. Educating young people. Not only that, but I have spent all but three and a half of those years in the same room! That seems to be something. (But it is still another story. Maybe one I will write next year.))

But back to the notion of sixty.

It is funny. Back when I was in my twenties, I was hanging out with my younger brother and his friends. I do not remember exactly what we were doing or where we were planning to go, but I said to them, “You don’t want to hang out with an old man.” (They were, and still are, about five years younger than I.) They all laughed. “Hey, old man.” That moniker stuck. And I have been an old man to them since that time. And now, I really am. (Like I said, they are only about five years younger than I am, so they too will be old men in no time.)

As they say, time and tide wait for no man. Or woman. Time marches on. We just keep getting older by the day. By the second. And that is okay. Better to keep getting older than the alternative. Which is not trying to be morbid or anything. In fact, it would be a great opportunity to preach. But I will refrain.

The thing is, I do not really feel much older today than yesterday. Or even than last year. Or the year before. I am certainly not getting any younger, but except for needing a nap every now and then or going to sleep at dusk, I do not really feel much older than I felt last year. (I do not really go to sleep at dusk. I wonder whether anybody really knows what dusk is anymore.)

One last notion about age. I hope that age does bring wisdom. I know it is not always the case, but I hope that I have some wisdom in me. I will certainly never be as wise as Solomon, but perhaps I can apply the wisdom he gives us at the end of Ecclesiastes.

Well, that is about it. I am not quite sixty yet, but I think it might be time for a nap.

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Vulture · 21 October 2023

My friend and faithful reader, Marc, suggested that I write about how teachers are vultures. Just put things where everybody knows they are up for grabs and they are gone in a flash.

I think that he may have been talking specifically about me. I am usually that guy who takes whatever is up for grabs. Especially free food. Which is a strange thing when you think about it. Just the notion of free food.

Free food is anything but free. Think about it. If you gorge on free food, then it sits in your gut and well… It sits in your gut. Probably because you ate too much. Or too fast. Or too much too fast.

By the way, when I say “you,” I mean me. But I do not think that I am alone. I think that others cannot resist free stuff. Especially free food.

I wonder what it is. The draw of free food. Perhaps it is just the treaty-ness of it all. It is a treat to eat. Or maybe because it is free, you want to eat more. I do not really know. What I do know is that whenever I have gone to an all you can eat place, I took it as a challenge. How much can I eat? Fish and chips during college? Eight or nine pieces. Plus the fries. And speaking of fries. I always need to get at least two orders of Red Robin endless fries. Yum.

The downside of eating like that though is the notion of an old commercial. “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.” Rolling around after the feeding frenzy is always tough. But I just find free food too enticing. I guess I need to stop that.

It would be nice to remember the “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” notion before I ate the whole thing. Remembering the pain of a full belly and the whole rolling around to get around would surely help me curtail my vulture tendencies. Maybe.

Ah well. I suppose I can try to stop being a vulture. I can stop hanging around the staff lounge waiting for people to drop their treats off. I can stop eating those endless fries after just one order. And I can stop asking people if they are done with that. (Which is a completely different story.)

I know that I am not the only one who acts like a vulture and eats all the treats when they come. But it sure seems like it. Thanks for the idea, Marc.

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Just the Watcher · 14 October 2023

I am just the watcher when I write stories.

It might seem strange to think about, but I really just record what is happening in my mind when I write stories. I create the characters and put them in situations and watch to see how they get to the ending that I know is going to happen. I might help the story along the way here and there, but for the most part, I just watch.

Which is a strange notion. Think about it. Writers are supposed to be creators. We are supposed to know what is happening when we write. We are supposed to know the story arc before it happens. At least that is what I always thought. Before I started writing much.

When I started writing in earnest, I wrote about stuff that I had already lived. Or at least a fictionalized telling of it. That is what my series Autobiography of a Sixth Grader is. I just tell the stories I remember from my childhood. Of course, I took a lot of literary license writing them, but I still just watched from the comfort of my chair in front of the keyboard. I still just wrote down the story as I watched it unfold.

That is amazing to think about. Not that I am amazing. I am just amazed at my own process. I write some notes about characters. Who is who and what do they do and how many kids do they have and how are they related to other characters. Even what situations they find themselves in. I do not even write all those notes at the beginning. I just write them as I need to remember what I wrote before.

The interesting thing about just recording what I am watching is that I tend to go through the emotions of those I am watching. I tend to feel the heartbreak and sadness. Sure, I get to feel the joy too, but stories are not all just sunshine. They often run the emotional gamut. Which means that my emotions get to run the gamut too. Happiness, sadness, elation, pain, suffering, heartbreak, and on and on it goes.

Which is why it is nice to be done with a story. I do not need to be the watcher for a while. I can just be me again instead of just the watcher. I can just write my blog as I read through and edit my stories. No need to go through all the emotions. Just get out that red pen and start slashing.

But when all the slashing and patching is done, it will be time for another story. It will be time to go back and just be the watcher.