Mystery

Although there are three (living) boy brothers in my family (Phil, Sam and I), Sam is so much younger, he's almost an only child. When I was growing up, I was the youngest, not the middle, and Phil and I were the dynamic duo. Phil was stubborn, opinionated, honest, possessed a fiery temper, enjoyed the outdoors, and wasn't overly competitive in nature.

I was competitive, shy to the point of silence, determined, watchful, not incredibly stubborn, dishonest, a rule-follower, and not incredibly opinionated, and I also enjoyed the outdoors. What a pair we made. My parents always said that when something went wrong, Phil would look the guilty party, and be innocent, and I would appear innocent, but would actually be the guilty party. Cookies gone? Phil denies it and turns red, and I deny it and poker-face my dishonesty through. Not my greatest of attributes: I was a good liar.

What has changed, really?

I've always loved mysteries. When I was young, I watched Perry Mason, Matlock, Diagnosis Murder (when it wasn't too scary), Magnum PI, Murder She Wrote, and a couple other mystery shows with my mother. Growing older, my favorite show is now Psych (though I rarely watch television) and Sherlock (BBC production, though the movies are great fun as well), and even occasionally Monk. Phil and I used to watch Scooby Doo religiously, and I even enjoyed watching the few other famous mystery shows (Hercule Poirot, which it turns out is written by Agatha Christie, as well as Colombo). 

I lovelove mystery.

Now I'm reading Agatha Christie for the first time and I've realized that though I love mystery, I've almost never really read it. Sure, I read some of the Nancy Drew, some of the Hardy Boys, all of the Boxcar Children and a couple of the other famous children's mystery series, but I never continued that love into my teen years. I wish I had. Agatha Christie is fantastic, truly engrossing. 

One of the reasons that I enjoy reading many different genres of literature is that I believe there is something of merit in each author, in every story and creative process: art, history, poetry, music, physics, fantasy, science, fiction, non-fiction and so on. I want to study them all so that I can reproduce them all, but is that even possible? I'm going to run out of time in my life, I think, before I even get close to accomplishing all I'd wish to accomplish. If only I had Sam's brains with my motivation and more time (or if I didn't have to worry about making money ever again - wouldn't that be something? Someone be my patron)

Unfortunately, my work isn't spectacular enough to merit patronage at this juncture, or publishing. Eventually, perhaps, though I've long since realized it isn't the perfection of the work that sells, but the drive of the story (see Hunger Games or Twilight). But who knows what will happen; life's a mystery, God works in mysterious ways, and the future is its own enigmatic destination.