Bob Dylan Understands
Well, it's been two years. I like to take my time in doing things, or so it would seem, but so much has changed since the beginning of the beginning, and why was the beginning marked by my graduation from college with an English degree? I mean, really, it wasn't. There is no beginning, there is only the idea that we get another chance to do things better.
First of all, I changed the name of my blog from The Archer's Mark to The Good Wolf for the following reasons: 1) I have been a vegetarian for fifteen years and the connotations of an Archer contradict my morals in more ways than they compliment it. 2) Wolves are amazing and I love them. 3) I have always liked the legend (Cherokee?) about the two wolves. It goes like this:
A grandfather was explaining to his grandson that there are two wolves fighting inside of him, as there is in everyone. One is greed, sorrow, pity, envy, anger and hate. The other is kindness, patience, humility, trust, generosity and love. When the grandson asks which wolf will win, the grandfather replies, "the one you feed."
I'm rooting for the good wolf. I want him or her to win in all of us.
Now about these changes, I left the country for the city and have been cultivating a path to get back there ever since. I'm hoping this spring will bring that opportunity. What could get me to move willingly into the stomach of the city? A man. And that's romantic and all, but I never intended to stay here in this bee hive, only to dabble, and crunch time is drawing near. Have I got my claws in far enough to pull him out with me? We shall see.
I like to say I'm a student of life, but I have also been a student of college for far too long. After getting my BFA in English and finding work that sounds fun but pays in peanuts, I have decided to return to school to further my nursing degree. I hope to make the transition from LPN to RN in the next year and a half. Then I will have a job that's not quite as creative, (or should I say not creative at all, even down to the color of the ink in your pen, it must be black!) but still generous, and it will pay. That is how I will write, but utilizing the time that opens up once I don't have to work 40 hours a week to lead my frivolous live style.
Anyways, this isn't my diary and I fear I will have to remind myself of that over and over again. There was a time when every word I typed on a public domain mattered to me as much as my own life, when I was a little too self aware and worried about the opinions of others. But alas, one of the gifts of age is that I just don't care so much now. Or, in the words of Bob Dylan, "I used to care, but times have changed."
Well, of all the things I have done in the last two years, one of them may be impressive to someone other than myself, and perhaps by parents. I finished my first novel. Yes I have. It's a post apocalyptic tale of a single mother and her sons traveling through a barren Texas. I submitted it to a handful of agents and got a handful of rejection letters, then decided to self publish it as an e book. It feels good to have finished something weather it sinks or swims. That's the great thing about art, it is worth more in its creation, its birth and development, than it ever will be in a monetary sense. At least that's how I feel. It has already made me happy. Don't get me wrong. I'm hoping it will sell. If it sells I will donate money to animal shelters and buy stuff, and I like to have some stuff around, but that is a vastly different currency from happiness and accomplishment.
In my next blog I will discuss and promote said novel.
First of all, I changed the name of my blog from The Archer's Mark to The Good Wolf for the following reasons: 1) I have been a vegetarian for fifteen years and the connotations of an Archer contradict my morals in more ways than they compliment it. 2) Wolves are amazing and I love them. 3) I have always liked the legend (Cherokee?) about the two wolves. It goes like this:
A grandfather was explaining to his grandson that there are two wolves fighting inside of him, as there is in everyone. One is greed, sorrow, pity, envy, anger and hate. The other is kindness, patience, humility, trust, generosity and love. When the grandson asks which wolf will win, the grandfather replies, "the one you feed."
I'm rooting for the good wolf. I want him or her to win in all of us.
Now about these changes, I left the country for the city and have been cultivating a path to get back there ever since. I'm hoping this spring will bring that opportunity. What could get me to move willingly into the stomach of the city? A man. And that's romantic and all, but I never intended to stay here in this bee hive, only to dabble, and crunch time is drawing near. Have I got my claws in far enough to pull him out with me? We shall see.
I like to say I'm a student of life, but I have also been a student of college for far too long. After getting my BFA in English and finding work that sounds fun but pays in peanuts, I have decided to return to school to further my nursing degree. I hope to make the transition from LPN to RN in the next year and a half. Then I will have a job that's not quite as creative, (or should I say not creative at all, even down to the color of the ink in your pen, it must be black!) but still generous, and it will pay. That is how I will write, but utilizing the time that opens up once I don't have to work 40 hours a week to lead my frivolous live style.
Anyways, this isn't my diary and I fear I will have to remind myself of that over and over again. There was a time when every word I typed on a public domain mattered to me as much as my own life, when I was a little too self aware and worried about the opinions of others. But alas, one of the gifts of age is that I just don't care so much now. Or, in the words of Bob Dylan, "I used to care, but times have changed."
Well, of all the things I have done in the last two years, one of them may be impressive to someone other than myself, and perhaps by parents. I finished my first novel. Yes I have. It's a post apocalyptic tale of a single mother and her sons traveling through a barren Texas. I submitted it to a handful of agents and got a handful of rejection letters, then decided to self publish it as an e book. It feels good to have finished something weather it sinks or swims. That's the great thing about art, it is worth more in its creation, its birth and development, than it ever will be in a monetary sense. At least that's how I feel. It has already made me happy. Don't get me wrong. I'm hoping it will sell. If it sells I will donate money to animal shelters and buy stuff, and I like to have some stuff around, but that is a vastly different currency from happiness and accomplishment.
In my next blog I will discuss and promote said novel.
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