LOST AND RUNNING FROM SAFETY

Well, this is going to be a little bit different. I say that like it's unusual... I am still writing my book. My muse is coming and going, but not gone. I picked up a Richard Bach novel on Monday that I read a long time ago and started it again. I would have preferred to read ILLUSIONS again, but it is stowed somewhere in a box or crate in my storage unit, amidst hundreds of other books, and I have no idea where to even begin looking for it. However, my mother has a copy of RUNNING FROM SAFETY right here at the house. I gave it to her a long time ago. I decided that it wouldn't interfere with my own writing process, so it went with me to my doctor's appointment on Monday.

Honestly, I didn't make it very far into the book. I kept getting stopped by actual doctor stuff, other interruptions, and my need to ponder something I read. Here are a few quotes from the book that stopped me in my tracks:

We have a saying: "An excess of heart, a shortage of brain." The way he said the words, his proverb was sad truth.
~~~
Shepherd nodded. "In 1944, when I told you that time was not the wall for me that it was for you. You promised that in fifty years you'd write a book to take back, just for the boy you were, everything you know. What to look out for, how to be happy, knowledge to save your life, things you wish you'd known when you were him."

"No. Really?" The wind-streamers ruffled in a thermal cresting the mountaintop. "What a sweet idea."

Shepherd cleared his throat. "It's fifty years later, Richard." He shifted, uncomfortable in his seat. "He's waiting back there, the boy that you were. You promised."

"I don't remember any promise."

The angel looked at me as though I had sold my soul. The words came out a little harsh, I thought, but neither boy nor angel knows how hard it is to write. "Tell him I forgot the promise, but that everything is going to work out all right and he's not to worry."

Shepherd sighed. "Ah, Richard," he said. "Do promises to children mean nothing to you?"

"Not when keeping them is going to break their heart! He doesn't want to know there are storms ahead, that before long he'll be the only one of his family left alive, he doesn't want to know about divorce and betrayal and bankruptcy, that he won't marry the woman of his heart for another thirty-five years. Shepherd, one year is forever to a nine-year-old. You're right, that promise means nothing!"
~~~~
"Books are written on years turned inside out by ideas that never let go until you get them in print, and even then writing's a last resort, a desperate ransom you pay to get your life back."
~~~
....this could show him what's important in a lifetime! You find what you love and learn everything about it. You bet your life on what you know and you run from safety, off your mountain into the air, trusting the Principles of Flight to bring you soaring up on lift you cannot see with your eyes.

Yep, I made it to page 20. At this rate, I should have it finished sometime around Christmas. Of course, I have lots of other things slowing me down, too. I am trying to get caught up on all of my taped TV shows on the DVR, so that they don't get recorded over. And I am still watching 24 and LOST in real time on the TV. Of course, they are both really hurting my heart. I know that a lot of people don't understand how a TV show, movie, or book could hurt your heart. Or they can understand how a book can hurt your heart but not a TV show (or a movie). That I don't understand. They are all stories. The only difference is that one is told via the written word and the other is acted out. In some ways a TV show creates a stronger bond, because your attachment to the characters happens over a longer period of time. However, it all comes back to how well the story is told. If the story is well-written, it can break your heart. Period. Last week, at the end of LOST, I was a crying, drippy mess. I am really worried about what is in store for me this week. It makes me hurt... To watch this clip you have to turn off the sound on my music player at the bottom of the page...