20151231

everything is okay, i promise

So there's a story I've been trying to tell for a while now. It happened in August, when everything was going wrong, when I was wandering home from a late-night jaunt to take care of some business. What it was is hardly important, except that I was dreading everything that was to come almost as much as I hated everything that had come before.

It doesn't matter. The point is, I took a wrong turn on the way home.

Maybe wrong isn't the word. It was a weird turn, and if I hadn't I would never have seen the woman sitting on the ground with her bike. I try to stop to help people when I think I might be able to, so I slowed down and gave her a concerned look. Before I could ask if everything was okay, though, she spoke.

"It's okay. Everything is okay. I promise."

I wished her a good night and kept going. I thought about it on the way home, but not a lot, because I had other things on my mind. Then I forgot, and was reminded again, and forgot again. And I realized that it's been a story for the New Year the whole time.

Sometimes you need someone to help you weather the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and sometimes, whether it's a warm night in a Seattle summer or a chilly New Year's Eve where the stars are burning bright, you can honestly promise the strangers passing by that everything is fine. Because she was more right about that than she probably realized: everything is okay. She was right then and she's right now. 

A toast, then, to strangers on the wayside, to old friends, and to everything finally being okay.

Happy 2016.

7 comments:

Kizolk said...

Happy 2016 to you too! May it be full of things, but also stuffs, all of them mostly okay if possible :)

As for me, I'm not into the resolutions business, though I do look forward to and wish for quite a few things. This year's the one where I will finally skydive. My most recurrent good dreams--when I used to remember my dreams anyway--are of flying; welp, not that original, but in my case it's to the point of obsession ^^ Also, I'll be doing musical stuff, including an album with my older band, and first gig with my newer one (well, not counting that time when we played two poor excuses of a song, drunk, without a bassist or a singer, at 2am in front of 10 persons, and the drummer and the other guitarist had a fight while we still were on stage). I also have this project, except this one needs more thinking through + lotsa time, of going on some kind of pilgrimage, the famous Camino de Santiago. I'm not religious, but that's not really the point. Well it does have a spiritual component, but it's also for the sightseeing and sports side of it. Okay, mostly the spiritual I guess.

rs said...

Sounds like a pretty great year! I've not been skydiving but my dad's a pilot so I can't blame people for the urge to fly. (Also, you should link me to your album when it comes out.)

There's no shame in the spiritual for the areligious, despite what the Internet Atheists would have you think. I feel like I should have a profound thought out there, but: there's beautiful things out there that are spiritual. Hope it's a good pilgrimage when you go.

My goals for this year are pretty low key. I want to finish the Twine game I'm working on, which will take a while but I think it could be pretty great. The rest is just my ongoing quest to learn French and fencing. (Also lockpicking, card magic, but I'm super rusty at those and have let them fall by the wayside.)

Kizolk said...

Errrm I used to be one of those Internet Atheists haha, the full package. But with time, I figured spirituality was a good word for those states of consciousness that I'd experience from time to time and enjoy, and that aren't easily describable. And from there, well, religion will never be my thing I'm afraid, but now I'm okay with it. I mean, if believers find religion to be a good expression of their spirituality, why not eh.

Learning French? Ça tourne pas rond dans ta tête, mec ?! Good luck! Languages (and linguistics) are Cool.

Well, maybe you planned on posting your game on this blog (I mean, I assume it'd be some kind of story?), but if not, do link it to me when you're done ;) (wasn't it Feynman who was into lockpicking too?)

rs said...

I used to be one of them as well, and came to pretty much the same conclusion. The human brain seems to like it, and who am I to argue? I find it in stories, other people find it in other places. Who am I to fault people for wanting to feel like they belong to something bigger than the world they've built in their heads?

I probably should have just continued the German I used to know in high school but, hey, nobody ever said my ideas are good. (The best part about learning is learning new ways in which to be wrong! I've been a smug know-it-all for too long.)

I will link to it from here, definitely. Even if I don't write here much anymore it's useful as a repository of things I've done. (Here is a map of the game right now: http://imgur.com/EABxnaX -- it's Just Getting Started) It's based on The Man With No Heaven, which I think I linked to on here somewhere. I liked that story, and wanted to make a game about that world. (It's a game about the inevitable downfall of a civilization. Cheerful stuff.)

Kizolk said...

Yeah, it's all about finding the secret buttons in one's brain. I liked to make fun of the lack of clarity in the answer to "why do you believe in God?", but I sure hope ETs won't be asking me about my liking for wooden things with metal strings on them.

I'm still learning this humility thing!

Ooh nice confusing map! So if I understand correctly it's used to make Choose Your Own Adventure-type stories? Inevitable downfall of a civilisation seems fun :')

Speaking of early WIPs, here's something we did a week ago with one of my bands, recorded during practice with a cheap recorder. First time we played it, and the singer wasn't there, but from what I gather, this one might be more your thing than the other stuff we do. Well, it certainly is mine, and apparently it's the entire band's so yay ^^ Actually that's one reason the album might be delayed, we do have songs, but we're still looking for Our Thing. Anyway: http://www.mediafire.com/listen/w6c3xpcxou0937l/nvl_compo_%28arp%C3%A8ge%29.mp3

rs said...

Sometimes I wonder if aliens wouldn't be just as weird as us, or at least as full of weird ideas about religion and spirituality. There's a sci-fi book I've been meaning to get to called The Sparrow, the premise of which (I'm given to understand) is that when mankind finally sends out a spaceship to explore the stars, it's sent by the Jesuits. Religion can be a huge drive to exploration, after all (for good or ill).

That is basically right! I think I've been calling it "interactive fiction" but the basic idea is the same. Twine is Javascript-based so you can do some pretty cool things with it. (It can go from "your choices make very little difference" to "your choices will affect every subsequent scene, and previous choices will even affect what choices are available to you in future scenes". I'm going for the latter, so I fully expect the project to become terrifyingly massive.)

I quite like the song! The beginning especially has a really nice groove to it. Gave me a sort of Twin Peaks vibe. Congratulations on making a cool thing!

Kizolk said...

Well, on the face of it it doesn't seem crazy to assume our kind of quirks inevitably come with biological complexity, so why not? Alien pop culture... *drools*

Sounds super cool! It's not that paper is boring (I don't think it is), but I love it when people try new stuffs in creative writing. My postmodernist penchant maybe ^^

Thanks! :) I haven't watched Twin Peaks, but it does seem cool from its wiki article!