Joshua Bader's Blog: How I Learned to Love the Bomb, page 5

In Memorial

It is not an easy thing to write in memory of someone. On Memorial Day makes it even harder, because no matter who I choose to write about, he or she will not live up to someone's standards of what this day is about. Why does it matter? Why should I remember?
The author of Hebrews takes the approach of a great stadium packed with those who have passed on from this life... and I am one of the contestants still on the field. Surrounded by the applause and cheers of these legends, I remember who they were to inspire me to be worthy of their support, their encouragement. The memory of the past interacts with present motivation to produce future results.
Psychology offers a host of other perspectives of why I remember. I remember, because those people made an impression on me and they live on through who I currently am because of that imprint. I remember, because memory is part of the human experience, a gift of cognition. Jung and Freud would add a spiritual dimension to the psychology and say that we remember because as part of the collective unconscious what happened to them is really our story too.
The characteristic of remembrance that reverberates in both the religion and the psychology is that I remember so that I may be. I don't remember my Grandpa Bader and his service to the Air Force to glorify the Air Force. I remember how he was a faithful father, loving grandfather, and hard working barber, in the hopes that when all is done, I will have lived up to his example.
I remember my Grandpa Taylor for his charisma, his humor, and his amazing card skills. (The man could stack a deck frozen cold and all observers would swear it was freshly shuffled.) The combination could have made him a con man card hustler of legend. Instead he worked hard his entire life as a carpenter to support his wife and children. Even into advanced ages, he was always eager to use his hands to make something for the benefit of others. The memory of his priorities and his choices continue to actively inform my own.
I remember... and with each memory, I am made ready for the journey ahead. The real fun, of course, starts if I'm found worthy to join that grand audience when my course is run.

Writing With Children

City Owl Press left me with the keys to the car this morning with their Author's Corner.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
http://www.cityowlpress.com/2016/05/a...

Bipolar

Some things need to be said, whether I want to be the one to say them or not. That was the most interesting thing to me about the Book of Jonah: God's chosen man with a message would rather drown than deliver it. I'm not that opposed to my current topic, but it's not an entirely comfortable one, either.
I have bipolar disorder. Not a huge shock: a lot of creative types do. The manic highs provide flights of fantasy that allow views of worlds never written. I've been writing since I was 12 with hopes of being a professional author. When mania raised its ugly head in my late teens years, it wasn't uncommon for me to pound out four poems, three short stories, and two novel chapters in the span of one very sleepless night.
I know a lot of people with bipolar fear losing that "gift". They fear that medication will steal the spark that makes them special. It's pragmatic to counter that medication might also stave off the soul-crushing depression or the ridiculously poor judgment that accompanies mania: it is the loss of creative genius the unmedicated writer/musician/artist fears.
I wrote for 13 years without a drop of lithium in my system. My first attempt at a novel after starting lithium therapy was a difficult slough. The biggest difference came in the end result, though: it got finished. It didn't end up as two or three chapters in a cobwebbed notebook. I finished it out to 16 chapters with a beginning, a middle, and an end. That particular novel isn't published yet.... but it will be. As it turns out, that novel will be book 4 in my Modern Knights series from City Owl Press. The difference between being a writer and being an author lies in finishing what was started. That's what lithium did for me: it made me a finisher.
I hope you all enjoy Modern Knights, starting with Frostbite in July 2016. I hope even more that if you're struggling with untreated mental health issues you consider getting help. Not all medication is good medication, but the right medication can make all the difference.