Parks Pages dot com

Well, stressful issues have been very distracting from the things I wanted to get done this week (i.e. writing).

I spent the majority of my time either dealing with the principal of my daughter's school, preparing for these dealings, or simply worrying about the situation. The issue at hand had nothing to do with my daughter -- it was based on an action the principal took that appeared to be a pressure tactic, but according to her explanation was just a ... let's use the term "poor choice." In any case, it's pretty much worked out.

I've also been dealing with what has snuck up as a sort of obsession, Humanism. I've read about this before and liked it, but moved on to other distractions. This time, it's been eating up a bunch of my mind. It started with the latest version of the Humanist Manifesto, and included Religulous, a re-watch of The Root of All Evil?, and the book, Humanism as the Next Step.

As a philosophy, I feel it's both powerful and accurate, and a positive and excellent way to look at life. It helped me focus on a fair and equitable solution to the issue mentioned above. It's become an influence on the lens through which I view the world, and affecting the things I think about ... including my writing.

The result is that the various incarnations of the novel I've been working on have had overtones of religion and Humanism in varying degrees applied to it. The difficulty I have is in reconciling the setting I've created with the ideas and themes I want to express, without damaging the setting. This is a world that I created 15 years ago, when I was a different person, and is consequently infused with different themes, not to mention being created for role-playing rather than writing. It's a great setting, but even though I never finalized every part of it, I don't want to damage it's core excitement by overlaying my changing perspectives.

And that's not easy to accomplish.

In any case, I'm hoping that I can settle my mind down and iron out in which directions I want to focus my energies. I have a job and a family, a continuing interest in my own thoughts and outlook, and creative endeavors that are necessary to keep me sane. It's a lot to juggle, and when stressful conflicts intrude, it makes in nigh impossible.

Hopefully things are settled down enough that I can refocus and start moving forward on what I want to do. I'll keep you posted.