Daniel Boone Regional Library 04/05/23
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I'm at the library. The Daniel Boone Regional Library, in Columbia MO.
It's been a while since I've been here, primarily because they adopted
very protracted and heavy-handed covid policies that made it pointless
for me to come here. But that was then, and this is today. The library
is, after these few years, back to normal.
Whatever normal is. There are more homeless people here than I recall
from last time. They've taken over the upstairs lounge, which is now a
daytime sleeping area it appears. I don't blame them, it's quiet,
clean, secure, air-conditioned and peaceful. It must get tiring being
on the street, worrying about so many things all the time.
I found through some tangential research that I'm related to Daniel
Boone. Previously, a website reported that I was his 2nd cousin, 11 or
13 times removed. That same website is now saying I'm his 5th cousin,
8 times removed. Maybe I'm both? Kind of an interesting thought...
Anyway, this library is named after him, for what it's worth. I'm not
sure he would have approved of it, but oh well. We don't get to choose
when we're dead, I think.
I told myself that I was going to write while I was here. Not on
gopher. There's one story I'm working on, on this laptop. I added a
few words, but I wasn't feeling it. I don't quite know how to write
when I'm not feeling it. There's something I need to learn.
Then again, I think I know how to write on gopher, no matter how I'm
feeling. I just open up a terminal and start typing about life. Of
course, I'm not inventing anything, which can be laborious. Just
typing, sharing, venting, getting thoughts out through my fingers.
How do you write fiction at the library, when you're not feeling it?
Enlighten me, gopher friends! Is the secret just writing non-fiction,
and somehow twisting it into fiction? Or, perhaps the trick is to live
in a mental world of fiction all the time, then write the unnatural
truth that you secretly dwell in?
