This is my one hundredth blog as KosmicEgg. Certainly that is something to be proud of at some level. I don't have many readers, but I have always viewed the blog as a practice, a place to experiment with whatever I was thinking about. I have offered my notions about rebuilding a life after divorce at various levels (personal, romantic, and professional). It is only in March that I started an organized approach to this field.
Today as I look out at my fallow field, waiting to test it, I see a blanket of snow. This cover crop of beans that is my blog is hearty and is unlikely to suffer from the wet, slushy stuff. In fact, most likely the snow helps it in the coldest, darkest moments of the night by protecting it from the sub-freezing temperatures and harsh winds. Nevertheless, it feels like an endless delay so filled with anticipation am I about getting started on a worthy project.
What does a farmer do with such a snow? Apparently, a late spring can change what a farmer will plant. Early spring yields a corn crop, sweet and certainly profitable. A late spring asks for a bean crop, like soy beans, hearty and weather resistant. For an orchard that is already planted snow can be helpful or disastrous, depending on the development of the crop. I guess I feel sort of wise that my orchard is just a vision at the moment, because this snow is not just a literal fact outside in Colorado, it is my writer's mind, too.
Remember the snow that the Good Witch, Glenda, sent to save Dorothy from the "field of poppies"? I'm kind of hoping that this snow helps my mind refocus and re-frame the journey I'm on. And, in a way it has already. You see I've settled on the idea that my true desire is to plant this orchard. To use the metaphor of fruit-bearing trees to think about screenwriting is a specific choice. Think of me as a virtual "Johnny Appleseed" if you will. Why do we love the myth of Johnny Appleseed? Here is this happy fella, tromping through the untamed wilderness dropping apple seeds that he knew would benefit those pioneers who would follow him. It's not a one-shot wonder type of deal.
There is a simple explanation for my vision: STAR TREK. Oh ho, you say, the truth comes out. It may seem like I must have an ego the size of the Enterprise to even dream of such a thing, a franchise of characters, universes, ways of being that create more and more. However, I have to say it is simply a matter of respecting the path that I happened to walk. I figure there must be some reason that I worked in the world of STAR TREK for 9 years to the point where I was dreaming in Klingon. It is not that I want to recreate STAR TREK! No, no! Goodness no. But the thing is that I saw how STAR TREK so inspired so many people to create in that field, and it supported countless families, and inspired space travel by people who might otherwise never have dreamed of it, and it broke thought barriers and it inspired technological designs. Gene Roddenberry created this idea of a "wagon train through the stars" at just the right moment, perhaps, but he thought about it for a long time, and he nursed it along to fruition for even longer. I would like to create a project that I could tend for a lifetime and be proud of as it expanded beyond the breadth of my own mind.
Certainly, there are other franchises now that we can see as orchards - Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Twilight, Stan Lee's Creations, Dune, the Oz books, Little House on the Prairie, Star Wars, and, of course, The Chronicles of Narnia that inspired me to write some 35 years ago. Imagine how these books and films have employed so many creative people, entertained and inspired the audience...It's huge. These are the orchards of writing, where a crop reproduces itself year after year with tender care. But, an orchard does take a great deal of time to mature, and so it is quite an investment to consider. This is not going to mean the "overnight" success which I would truly love to experience.
I look out on that field covered with snow and I wonder if my plans are wise in any way. Should I plant something that will yield a crop this year, and forget about the bigger investment until I have some comfort? Or shall I forgo comfort, for not only myself but also for my family, in the hopes that the bigger investment will grow as my dreams promise?
The Storyteller's Orchard where organic writing grows.
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