Meditations of the Sea

I took an early morning stroll on the pier this morning, to do that obligatory thing people do while at the beach: observe the sunrise. While I was spending the time in relative solitude, my mind, as it so often does, began to contemplate. I wondered why we are so fascinated with the Ocean.

As my gaze swept from the sea over to land, it suddenly hit me. The Ocean hasn’t really been tamed. Oh, certainly we have tools to explore and study it, but we haven’t cultivated it for civilization. Once my gaze swept the beach, immediate signs of civilization appeared. High rise condos, pavement, lights, and noise. Everywhere. The ocean? It appeared more or less the same as it has appeared for centuries, since before even Antiquity was new.

Perhaps we are drawn to the sheer size and immensity of it as well. The eye strains as far as it can see, and if you’ll pardon the pun, all it can see is Sea. So much Ocean. So little us. It is the same, perhaps, as gazing out to the stars, which incidentally, is also best done at Sea. We are drawn to Infinity.

Or, perhaps more encouragingly, Infinity just may be drawn…

...to us.

You Spin Me Right Round Baby

I was quite amused earlier when standing in line behind a grown man, who himself was very fidgety, when he dropped his very own fidget spinner.  He immediately became a hit with the kid behind me, who kept chatting away about the little pointless devices long after Fidgety Man had fidgeted away, apparently fidgeting quietly to himself.

What is the appeal of these things?  They do precisely one thing, and spoiler alert, fidgeting is not on that list.  (They do however spin with wild abandon.)

We live at a time where some 21st Century humans believe the planet is flat, and the popular toy is a thing that only spins.

Oh who am I kidding I'm just jealous that I didn't think of this idea myself.

The Power of Words

Have you ever wondered just how amazing is such a simple thing as communication? Ever since I was young, one thing I’ve loved to do is read. I don’t only love the stories themselves; I’ve always had a love for the printed word.  That weird little fetish is part of why I wanted to experience the other end of this bizarre relationship and create some writing of my own.

Our society wouldn’t exist as it is today without written communication. But stop and just think for a moment how weird it is. The writer scribbles or types these odd, squiggly little lines upon the page (or screen or refrigerator magnet or even a convenient highway underpass) then on the other end, perhaps even centuries later, the Reader beholds these bizarre little squiggles.

The squiggles don’t move.

They don’t make any noise.

They don’t do anything except simply exist, and yet as the Reader’s eye moves across them, magic happens. An idea suddenly springs to life in vivid detail. It is happening to you right this second, even if you aren’t really thinking about the process.

I’ve always been completely fascinated by the direct, intimate, one-on-one relationship between Author and Reader. Entire universes can spring to life, and Life itself breathed into a character that only truly exists as an inanimate squiggly line. Each word is a time capsule. An Author long dead can still whisper across Time to tell their story directly to another human, and the story lives forever. (Blogs, however, can sometimes get deleted. Sigh.)

I often fret at the state of our species. Sometimes it seems like we only exist to consume, argue, and reproduce. But then I’ll read something beautiful, from one Creator’s Soul to mine, and my faith will be restored.

The Power of Words is strong indeed.

Welcome to the Realm!

As memory serves, it all begins somewhere in 2008. Motivated mostly by boredom and some sort of creative bug, I began to compose my thoughts on the time-travel trope in contemporary science fiction stories. I posted this to my personal Facebook notes page, and it was an instant hit.

Oh, the ideas I posted in that initial offering weren’t exactly original, but the humor and cadence of my writing caught the attention of a few friends, and with some insistent prodding, I created my first blog, entitled Topher’s Ramblings. The name “Topher” at that time was a play on my name “Christopher,” and until then, I had gone by the name Chris. Topher, however, became a sort of sarcastic, overly-confident alter-ego. Writing as Topher gave me a profound sense of joy. I even joined social media sites with the initial idea to advertise my little corner of the Interwebz. (And, if I’m being completely honest, I was hoping my writing would get me laid. The Power of Love? No, Huey, try the Power of Words.)

The new blog was launched. I have a rather unique perspective on “Life, The Universe, and Everything” and it came through in my writing. I’d post about random things like science or a funny thing that happened that day and a few friends and family loved it. All was going moderately well until the unthinkable happened: I lost my big sister to breast Cancer.

I’m not going to recount the emotions that I felt, except to say that the air being sucked out of my lungs was not, in this case, a metaphor. It was an experience unlike anything I have felt before or since, and it changed who I was- and am today- as a person. Once I finally summoned my thoughts together, I composed the best piece of writing I have ever written, called The Call Heard Around My World, in which I recounted the morning I got the phone call. It was written from grief. It was written with all due wrenching of my gut. It came directly from the heart. It spoke directly to every reader who had experienced loss. I was my magnum opus, and all it took was losing a family member. The taste is still bitter all these many years later.

I wish more than anything I could repost that entry here. Unfortunately, sometime later, the site that hosted that old blog (which had now been rechristened Wizard of Blog) went to digital Valhalla, and all of my old posts were lost forever. I didn’t learn from Jesus, y’all. Jesus saves.  For a long time I felt heartbroken, having lost an important piece of myself. My memories, my heart, my humor seemed to all go up in a flash, and I fell out of writing.

...until now. Welcome to the Realm. I’m Topher, your guide to the World of Words. I’m going to try to flex these rusty old writing muscles again, to hopefully entertain, perhaps enlighten, and definitely tug at your heartstrings, Dear Reader. (Do you mind if I call you Reader? Personalizing these things with your individual name isn’t easy, yo. And if your heartstrings aren’t occasionally tugged, you have no heart, and there’s nothing medical science can do for you.)

I sincerely hope Topher’s Realm can live up to my own expectations. I hope you enjoy it as well. Together, we’re going to take a wonderful journey through my mind. Drugs may help, but I’m not a medical expert. Use only as directed, and your experience may vary.

From the bottom of the wellspring that is my heart,

Topher

p.s. For aspiring writers out there, such as younger me, writing can totally get you laid.