Wednesday, June 6, 2012

It's Old, and it's New



Tomorrow I start a ten day period where I will be living in the home I grew up in, and with some of the people I grew up with—my mom and dad. My dad just had a kidney removed, he’s 85 years old, and will take some time to recover. I’m traveling to Indiana help with his recovery.

Life is a mixing of the familiar with the new. The oak tree in our backyard still stands, but the cottonwood, honey locust, and weeping willow (the one I used to climb as a kid) are all long gone.

In the living room my mom’s piano, which she’s had for almost 60 years, occupies one wall. When their grandsons come over sometimes they use sheet music on an Ipad while playing.

With the exception of two, the other houses on my parents’ street have changed owners several times. Most of the backyards which used to provide short cuts have all been fenced in but I can still remember taking them.

In our stories we’ve got a couple hundred pages to create a meaningful and engaging, and hopefully page-turning, arc of growth. It doesn’t matter whether your story takes place over 24 hours or 24 months or 24 years. You take a life-cycle and you sort of compress it and expand it at the same time. You take an old theme, because there are no new ones, and shine a light on it from your experience and you see something new.



It’s old, and it’s new.

8 comments:

  1. Beautifully and powerfully written, Paul. Have a safe trip to Indiana.

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    1. Thanks, Michael. Big travel day today, and it's not over yet. :-0

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  2. Great stuff, Paul.

    I remember the first time I returned to my childhood home after over 20 years. Everything seemed so small.

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    1. Thanks, Matt. After twenty years, I bet things seemed small. (I think there's some kind of picture book idea in that perspective, but I can't put my finger on it right now.)

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  3. I'm sure going home again is strange and warm and perhaps a bit disconcerting. My parents have moved several times so I will never have that exact feeling.

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  4. what an excellent post! I hope your father recovers swiftly!

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    1. Thanks, Daisy. He seems to be doing well right now!!
      :-)

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  5. Great post, Paul. I'm hoping to visit my childhood neighborhood in another year or two. It has to be part of a trip since I live nowhere near it. I wonder what's the same and what's changed. I probably won't get to see the apartment since it's changed hands. I've looked at pictures online of it and other apartments with similar floor plans. It always conjures up a well of emotions.

    Wishing your father the best, Paul.

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Thanks for adding to the mayhem!