Obsessions

This light pole—covered with a now-dead vine—makes me think of our lives, how we wrap ourselves around our dreams and goals. (Or do we wrap them around ourselves?) I don’t know if the word obsession fits that vision but that’s the word that came to me.

I first learned the word—countless years ago—when I read the novel Magnificent Obsession, by Lloyd Douglas. All I remember of the book is that it was about a doctor.

Anyway, for the past month, I’ve been obsessed with turning a prose retelling of The Goose Girl tale into a hybrid verse and vignette novel. 

With just a few more pages to go to complete the first draft (and much more work to follow that), one night recently I found my dreams haunted by numbers.

One was 500-something. That number still makes no sense to me. The other number, remembered clearly, was 154. 

The calculator in my unconscious head

I’ve been disturbed by how speedily the months are flying past. It struck me that 154 might have to do with time. I computed how many days of the year have passed.

Sure enough, by May 31st, we will have lived through 154 days of 2023. My obsession has devoured the month of May. I must tell you how much I have enjoyed being prodded along by my work.

But I also have the determination to complete a draft of the book that will finish off my science fiction trilogy by the end of the year. That means returning to plodding along. With any luck, it too will become an obsession. 

And so, before the month’s final days, I’m determined to spend part of each day worming my way back into the world of planet Lodestone.