‘As the usher brings forth the Ice cream and snacks, we wait for the main feature to resume’
In Robert Heinlein’s 1984 novel JOB: A Comedy of Justice the protagonist is in a constant struggle, when he makes progress something always seems to throw him off his stride. In one case paper money earned in one Mexico is then worthless as he ends up in an alternate reality where Mexico has become a Republic. These sort of trials and tribulations we can all relate to, well not exactly as we haven’t all got alternate universes to go into but we all get things thrown in our way when we are trying to achieve something.
January is a strange month, post Christmas and with all the possibilities of a new year. We have a quiet Christmas, just myself, my Wife, two dogs and a sassy moo cat. Sometimes it’s hard to avoid the pressures of Christmas even though you are out of the ‘main stream’ of Christmas celebrations. These pressures can hang over into January when you get the do this or that to create the new you for the year. We can’t, as the residents of the dome in Logan’s Run just pop down to our local ‘New You’ shop and get a new face.
Last year overall wasn’t a brilliant year due to family losses and a few other factors, however there were many things I managed to enjoy, from simple interactions with my Wife and dogs, to the excitement of seeing The Rise of Skywalker at 1 minute past midnight.
As I said January is a strange month, for me it’s leading to February where my Wife needs to spend a few days in Hospital. The reason she is going to Hospital isn’t serious but the overall visit could adversely affect her overall health and disability in the short to medium term (or worse case scenario long term). One thing I don’t want that Hospital Visit to do is define our year. I have two choices with this situation, I can either let my personal anxieties take over and be useless in supporting my Wife, or I can use some of my personal loves as a support and a way for us both to deal with and surprisingly make the most of the situation. It takes some planning and foresight, and I will be taking some films and reading material along. I will also be pre-planning some blog posts for release over that week and maybe whilst waiting at points I can write or plan some future content.
I primarily write this blog for myself, I think that is the only way to do it. It covers my love of many things and allows me to write about them. When I was young I always wanted to be involved in some way with those things I love. If you want some more background on that have a look at my 40 years in the making post. I am finding writing and doing some deeper research on things I love very therapeutic. I set myself goals when I started this, that I would post a specific amount of days and generally I’ve kept with that. I want people to come here and know that there is new content on a weekly basis. As a person who myself reads blogs, it can get frustrating when the content is very intermittent and sometimes it’s difficult to tell if a site is still live. I have however struggled through January and have not completed as much content as planned, I have however managed to keep posts coming on a weekly basis and I’m really proud of that.
Like the protagonists in JOB, there are always things in our way and it is how we react to them that is important. BAFTD is as I always say a positive space, there are so many places where people are ranting about how they hate the latest Star Wars film or how much they dislike Dr Who. Why concentrate on those things you hate, personally I much prefer to concentrate on what I love and use those things as a way to get over those things that can throw me off my stride.
The lights dim, we now resume the main feature’
