We come across so many different characters during the story of life. Through time we see how their roles develops and what part they have in our tale.
Each day we write another page as our life chronicles grow. Each year another chapter… our book finally goes to the editor and gets published posthumously. We are never around for the book signing.
The main characters of our book give the story it’s substance, but it’s the minor roles that might last for a few pages or maybe a chapter or two that fill the book with flavor. They give the book a best seller status.
Once life gets into the fifth or sixth chapter these minor characters start to appear. The neighborhood kids, the nun who taught you cursive, the bully in fourth grade, the girl who let you touch her boobie and even an Uncle who smoked a pipe and had a wall of bowling trophies.
These characters come into the story of life and give it the flavor and color that sticks everything together.
Today is AA Milne’s birthday. He wrote many different things, but we know him best for “Winnie the Pooh.” I loved those stories as a kid and watched every show when it was on television. I read those stories to my children. Fritz had a Winnie the Pooh in his crib.
It wasn’t until recently that I learned the characters from the Hundred Acre Woods all represented a mental health. Hazel told me when we were laying on the couch watching “Christopher Robin.”
Hearing words like dyslexia, eating disorder, anxiety, depression, ADHD and Schizophrenia come out of my daughter’s mouth was terrifying.
Geez, my baby girl is getting smart!
A main character that didn’t enter my story until chapter forty seven just taught me something new.
The only problem with writing our life story is we can’t go back and rewrite chapter eleven or chapter twenty four. We can proofread those chapters, but once the ink dries you can’t erase anything.
Proofreading can bring back great memories and can also stir up the sad ones. All we can do is turn the page and keep writing. Someday the ink will run out and the story will end.
Make sure the reader and the writer are both satisfied when the words “The End” appear.
