b.read.crumbs: Hanging Out

This is a repost of Julie Herman‘s most recent b.read.crumbs post.

The following definition of HANG from Merriam Websiter online is the one folks usually think applies when they get the hanged man.

He hanged for his crimes. To be suspended from the neck until dead as punishment for real or imagined crimes.

I invite you to look carefully at the image. Are any of the beings depicted on these cards hanging until dead?

I think not.

So I invite you to connect to one of the other meanings of the word:

SUSPEND, DANGLE, LINGER, PERSIST, IMPEND, DEPEND, CLING, KEEP UP, or the current informal “HANG” as in HANG OUT.

Keeping in mind that the HANGED MAN is the third card in the middle of the court cards of the Tarot, we’re still in a hinge moment. When you’re writing a story, the author often will allow the main character to take a moment here to linger with what they’ve learned.

In the NATE THE GREAT mystery series that my children loved and adored, Nate would always return home at this point of the story to hang out with his dog, Sludge, review the evidence, and eat pancakes. It was then that he would have a flash of inspiration that allowed him to solve the case.

While it’s a long way from Nate’s crime solving adventures to real life, it holds true for both.

When I was in my midlife period, I found myself pressed between my teenage children, who were both independent, and who also needed me in a whole new way I hadn’t quite prepared for, and my aging parents, who needed me in similarly unfamiliar ways. I wound up suspending the tell-you-what-to-do parenting with my children — who were, after all, fairly competent, and becoming more of a parent to my parents, whose age was advancing impendingly. (OK, clunky, but had to get one of those definitions in. 😉

Trying to figure things out impressed upon me the importance of persist in thinking about things, even those that made me uncomfortable.

And this, of course, is also true for writing in general, not just the plot.

Right now I am not writing. (Blog posts notwithstanding.) My assessment of myself depends on being a writer. And not writing is uncomfortable. But I needed to make space for HANGING OUT, assessing where I am and what I want to be working on next. So, this July is reserved for reading, talking about writing, thinking about writing, and generally spending time contemplating what it is that I want to do next. It’s not a bad way to be. The ideas for how to resolve some of the problems I’ve had with works in progress are starting to come, and they might not have if I hadn’t opened up the space for myself.

I’ll be hanging out until August, when I’ll be back again, both at my desk writing once again, and to pull another card from the deck. (Deb will step in again with the next card in the sequence in a couple of weeks.)

Until then, hang in there, friends.