The Path
Took Demon Baby (and the rest of them) here yesterday as a sort of last big family outing before Oldest leaves for college. Today, I feel like a train wreck. You see, there is joy, there is laughter, there's fun in Demon Baby World . . . but there's no such thing as a straight line.
Demon Baby does not feel that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. In fact, he barely seems to believe in lines at all. Or walking. He jumps, he dances, he walks on the little curbs INTENDED as barriers to garden plants, he climbs on rocks meant for decoration, he pulls you along zig and zag. He falls, he cries, he asks you to carry him. He wants to be on your shoulders. He wants a piggyback ride. He wants to get in the stroller you stupidly brought THINKING he might ride in it when tired. He gets sleepy. He takes a 15-second snooze, and the whole zig-zag, hop, skip, jump, dance, karate-kick, don't-ever-walk-in-a-straight-line agenda starts all over again. I was pulled and tugged and jumped on, occasionally kicked by a stray karate leg. You get the idea.
And I actually, other than feeling like a train wreck, LOVE that. And I thought it really applied to writing. Because I know WAY, and I mean WAY too many writers who have set out a course for themselves, and get discouraged at the first unintended zig-zag. Or too many writers who have heard there IS a straight line and they MUST follow it. Sometimes an unintended consequence of joining certain writing organizations is the idea there is a "right" way, a straight path. It can SEEM that way, but really, everyone's path has a karate-kick or hop along the way. And people can tell you the straightest line, the most orderly path . . . but it's empowering to remember those who walked backwards a few steps before leaping on the curb around the garden and doing a balance-beam thing before jumping off and doing a happy dance.
The way things are now, I don't expect Demon Baby to EVER walk a straight line. And that's okay. The lesson there, of course, is that we should let everybody else who tries a different hop-skip-jump to do the same.
Bet you didn't know Demon Baby taught a course in Zen.
Thoughts?
22 comments:
Reminds me of one of my favorite poems, The Road Less Traveled by Robert Frost.
I might pretend to conform sometimes, but I definitely have a different drummer pounding around upstairs.
Once again, E, jackpot on the post.
I think it's important to remember that the shortest distance between two points isn't always the best route.
Demon Baby knows this!
It would serve me well to tattoo it on my arm.
I've been standing still in my novel writing because I do not want to walk on the line that I've drawn. Just this morning I emailed a writer-friend to ask if she would push me off the balance beam so I could just keep writing.
Even though I've been thrown for a loop a few times in life, I'm a planner - a plotter - an outliner - a list maker.
And now I just want to zig-zag. I want to see where life, and my characters, take me.
Sheesh, we must have been on the same wave length today. I was just watching a piano teacher list like they'd grown two heads, because someone had a problem, and everyone said "Switch to X method!" And only ONE person actually suggested a solution. A method can't teach. How bizarre is that thinking? It sort of blew my mind.
I wanted to add that I've started a new blog...just for my thoughts about writing, and life.
You all inspired me!
This reminds me of a magnet a friend bought for me that says, "A laugh is the shortest distance between friends." DB's way of getting places reminds me of that. :)
I try not to let the rules hold me down. I know certain ones must be followed, but more as guidelines. Otherwise we'd all end up in the same place.
I LOVE this post!
It wasn't until I joined a couple writing organizations (when my third book came out)that I realized I'd done everything wrong. I was glad I didn't know "the rules" I might've been tempted to follow them!
Demon Baby for president! Geniuses are always misunderstood when they're young.
Hi Jude:
Yes. though Demon's road is decidedly crookeder. :-)
E
Amy:
Yes. I think the short path might be straight and narrow--but may not be the path for everyone. :-)
E
spy:
I always love your teaching perspectives.
E
Amy:
COOL! I am off to check it out. I need to update my blog links this weekend, so that will be one to add!
E
Melanie:
I never heard that one. Wonderful!!!!
E
Stephen:
We could do far worse than Demon Baby for president. :-)
E
hehe I definitely feel like someone who doesn't walk in a straight line. I was trying to though. Really trying. But it's just not for me. I gotta jump around backwards and do things weird cause it's the only thing I can get passionate and excited about.
And Demon Baby is SO fudge. OMFG Judy Blume was somehow channeling the unborn Demon Baby when she wrote that.
He's got to be the coolest kid.
Zoe:
He is. But you know, there are people in your life who somehow give you energy. And there are people in your life who are SO high-energy themselves that being around them sucks all life from you. LOL!!!!
E
hehehe, I can be an energy sucker or giver, depending on the mood of the person around me at the time, lol. I'll bet Demon Baby is the same way.
DB is definitely a little Buddha. I love how free he is, although I totally get your exhaustion part. My grandkids are really fun, but at the end of a play day I'm pretty zombie.
As a writer, I love doing it my way. Probably why I don't read how-to books often, or listen to rules of writing speeches.
zoe:
He gives me great joy. But if there is an EASY way to do things, and an incredibly difficult way . . . he will always choose the path of MOST resistance.
E
ladonna:
I love your independent spirit.
E
And because of that, he will do something great some day.
Very zen. My first child was a maverick. Always danced to her own drummer and I loved that about her. I called her the sponge because of the way she soaked up things. I thought sending her to school tempered the maverick in her a bit and that was sad. She's still a maverick but now she keeps it inside, only letting it out now and then.
aimless:
Well, I assume the principal and I will be on a first-name basis, but I hope to not have this hammered out of him too much. If I thought they were squashing his spirit, I would home school or find a private school that worked for him. I feel that way for all my kids . . . Schools are about conformity--necessarily so with so many children to educate. But it's not for everyone.
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