My Outlook

My Outlook

Psychologists often tell us that the personalities of “normal people” are generally formed by one’s early 20s.  Of course, certain unstable personality types, such as those suffering from a borderline personality disorder, do not fit under this generalization and have unstable personalities.  In going over the pages of my science fiction novel from the early sixties, I find that my views and outlook have changed little.  After extricating myself from a crisis of religious belief in my late teens, I had settled pretty much a view of what Stephen King termed. “a dark Christianity,” one based upon the views of Ecclesiastes and the sturdy old Medieval belief that this world is a vale of tears and humankind’s true home lies beyond the grave. Of course I am not an utter pessimist. Certainly this world offers joys and pleasures. Some people are winners, some loser, often because of events beyond their control.

A Relief

A Relief

As some of you may recall, I have been preparing for publication the science fiction novel I initially wrote in the 60s and rewrote in the seventies. I have been planning to do so for some years. In the back of my mind lurked the possibility that I would be unpleasantly surprised by what I wrote eons before.  I am glad that so far I have found little that needs changing.

Florida on My Mind

Recently my imagination has been occupied by the fair blue skies. White sandy beaches, and tropical vegetation of the state. My mother long wanted to go to Florida. But my father had no interest in visiting the state. So in the summer of sixty-three. Mom and I took a trip via Greyhound bus to Miami. Indeed we had so grand the time that she and I returned the following summer. In nineteen sixty-four and nineteen sixty-five I worked on the first version of my science fiction novel, which I’m preparing for publication.  Small wonder then that I set the novel in Miami and the Everglades, especially since the setting fit. Hence my recurring memories of Florida.

Boasted Too Soon

A few weeks ago I boasted too soon about being back in the saddle as far as blogging was concerned. Alas, I spoke too soon. Again I had computer problems. Every now and then a message appears stating that Windows is having problems communicating with my computer and has to restart. I can’t prove my supposition, but problem began about the time Windows forcibly switched my computer to version 10.  The repairman cannot find the source of the problem since it has never occurred while he was examining  the machine. So apparently I’ll have to endure the problem until it gets so bad it starts acting up frequently. By that time I’ll probably decide to get a new computer.