Notes from Maine - 2020/09/11

The curtains are closing on summer here. Lots of cool days on the horizon, although we had one last hot one yesterday. I’ve started my list of things I need to do before the snow flies. It’s a long one this year. I’ve put off too many things for too long. I want to tick that final thing off my list and just relax in a warm house as the first snowflakes begin to fall.

Years and years ago, I started a book (Extinct) trying to capture that feeling. Two characters faced the coming storm in different ways. Robby was proactive and tried to stay ahead of the crisis. Brad hid himself away, barricading out the rest of the world.

The book I’m sending out today has barely been read by anyone. Perhaps a few hundred people, from what I can tell, have read Punch List. I enjoyed writing it. I hope you like it. It’s about a person who resorts to keep lists so they can avoid dealing with the world around them. It’s about another person who tries to live externally so they can avoid the guilt they carry around.

Last year, I made an effort to evaluate my motivations. It felt like I was engaging in some things just because the world thought I should. Without being overly selfish, I wanted to eliminate activities from my life that were more performance than substance. Of course, just talking about it feels like performance. It’s difficult to explain without sounding like a self-centered fool.

This book (Punch List) was written a while ago, but I think I was entertaining the same thoughts back then—are there things we’re doing to just try to impress the rest of the world? Is it worth it? The young characters in this book wrestle with those questions.