Demystification

I’ve done quite a bit of writing in my life. Prior to the works I’ve presented here, my writing was usually on behalf of someone else – students or colleagues – or for professional purposes – grant proposals and reports of various kinds. I wrote a doctoral document some people apparently find useful. Several years ago, I managed to find pieces of time to write a collection of vignettes honoring my teachers and mentors. However, like Mr. Holland, of “Opus” fame, I didn’t have much time to write about my own ideas.

“Where do you get your ideas?” some might ask. (OK, one or two people might ask.) The idea for “The Old Man in the Garage” came from a comment made by the daughter of my son’s fiancé. Soon after we met her, she was trying to figure out what to call us. On one visit to our house, I was working on a project in the garage when she arrived. She went inside and announced, ”I really like the old man in the garage.” That’s when we knew we would need some grandparent names. But in the meantime, “the old man in the garage” sounded like a good story title to me. Who was he? What was he working on? Why was the neighbor girl spying on him? What happened next? Like all my stories, I believe there must be a point, or a moral of some kind, so there are stories within that story, told to teach Sophie a few life lessons. Of what use are “old men” if they can’t at least try to impart a little wisdom to children? After all, if you love someone, it’s only natural to share some ways you think they might do better than you. Matthew, the old man in my story, agrees with me. He believes we should respect children enough to tell them what we’ve learned, especially from our mistakes. Of course, what they do with that knowledge is up to them. And sometimes the next generation must learn some things on their own.

In upcoming posts, I’ll be sharing some of the inspirations for my stories and essays. I can only hope my thoughts might inspire a few people to create their own stories, to express their thoughts in sentences and paragraphs, to share what they have learned, by trial and error, careful study or hard experience, thoughtful meditation or sudden revelation, in wakefulness or in dreams – yes, I’ve received a few ideas from dreams. More about that in a later installment…