You're Late

Hey. Well, apropos of me not having blogged in ten days, I have noticed that several times in The Lord of the Rings somebody tells somebody else that they're late. It's the first word of the movie, when Frodo tells Gandalf he's late for Bilbo's party. Legolas tells Aragorn (in Elvish) "You're late--and you look terrible" when Aragorn staggers back to Helms Deep after recovering from his wounds in the warg attack. Both Denethor and Saruman tell Gandalf that Late is the hour that Gandalf the Grey comes to Isengard / Minas Tirith.

And so on many times throughout the movies.

So?

So, the world is a big place, with a lot of people in it, which has been around for a while. Which means that, whenever you start in helping or doing your bit, it's already "late"--a lot of stuff has already happened, a lot of people have already been hurt or victimized or whatever, no matter how energetically, strategically, or earnestly you intervene. That does not, of course, mean don't do it. It means you are part of something bigger, that others before and after you, and others now, feel passionate about causes and issues you do, that your story is a chapter in a bigger story that puts your story in context and makes it mean something.
So laugh--as both Gandalf and Aragorn do--at yourself and the situation, take a deep breath, and charge in. Are you too late? Yep. From the obvious point of view are the bad guys winning, the good guys disorganized? Yep. So what do you do now? Just what you were going to do anyway, only with more maturity and at the same time with more reckless abandon.

As I start off, again, trying to start off a speaking writing networking thing, I'm once again too late. The publishing world moves on, key positions are already staked out, people get bored, I'm not exactly covershot material. And you know what, you just laugh about it, trust God, and plunge in again.

I've sent out two manuscripts this week to well-placed readers. Not too weak for a week. It's a start.