Influences and Choice

Influences and Choices ©

By

Michael Casey

I was looking out the window enjoying the Winter Sun from inside the warmth of our house, because it’s freezing outside, so I’ll enjoy the sun from inside. The Russian blast that is due hasn’t reached Birmingham yet, but its too cold for me already. I was thinking about what somebody asked me yesterday, can I write when I’m Sad, the answer is No. And I’m not talking about SAD, the disorder due to lack of sunshine. I’m talking about how mood or events influence what I can or cannot write. Because I wrote choices in the title I may go down that route as well.

If there is a tragedy somewhere it affects us all in one way or another, and if we have a connection then the effect is stronger. We say I was there only yesterday, or my uncle used to live there. How could this happen, or they are always driving too fast on that road. All manner of events and small or great connections to the place or the event. So if the connection is strong then you don’t feel like going dancing or to lunch because it wouldn’t feel right,or it puts you off your stride. So it is with me and the writing. I cannot write a comic piece about sausages if there has been a food poisoning in the news, though recently a butcher escaped being locked in his own fridge by using a black pudding as a hammer to escape.

You see I’m not a journalist who’s trained this way or that way, to write about all manner of things, including the terrible and the heart breaking. I hope I write funny stuff normally, as an antidote to some of sadnesses I have witnessed in life. I don’t want to bore you all about my pains, though I do mention them from time to time. I’d rather lead you down the garden path to laughter. I hope you enjoy my style, I could not write in the rubbish style of some publications, though you could all be saying, michael casey writes rubbish.

So today as I looked out the window I see 2 of our neighbours putting a plastic table in the boot of their car, outside the house where the other neighbour just died. Two separate events but to a writer, one can lead to another. Table and a death. When one of our lodgers died he left behind a brand new pair of shoes, so dad gave them to Billy one of his co-workers at the steelworks, this would be 30 years ago. Only the next day Billy told dad that the dead man had chased him around the table. That’s why you never put shoes on a table I suppose.

So just by looking out the window I was influenced by what I saw, and what I chose to write about. It unlocked a memory and as you know I have many many memories. Memory makes us. That’s why when you lose a memory you are losing part of your personal history, and that’s why any illness or disease that destroys Memory is a bad thing. And so is substance abuse of any kind, because it is taking away part of us and our dignity. And that’s why some things have so many memories attached to them, its not the thing, its the memory attached to the thing. That old chair belonged to granny and she used to sit in it and tell you stories. Or that sledge was the Rosebud sledge in Citizen Kane.

Life is full of influences, sex, drugs and rock and roll could be one path, one influence. Or percentages and mansions another path if you are the manager. The thing in life is to be free to feel all the influences, but then wise enough to chose the right one. Do you give in to the lust, or wait for the right guy, though if you are lucky it’s the same guy. Sometimes the choice is not yours at all. You just stumble along, and as Mark Harris once said to me, You are a good stumbler.

My brother said try computers, and I applied for one job, scrawling a note of application on half a piece of paper as I wrote on the old barn chair, the one I still have upstairs in my rubbish room. That was 40 years ago and I became a Computer Operator on DEC PDP 1170s, so by being influenced by my brother my choice led to a job that lasted 21 years. I stumbled into it. The dog peed on the garden gate and the dog’s pee led to me buying this house years later.

I never even thought of being a writer, I just loved words and listening to Politics with my dad. So once I had the house I wondered what next, so words chose me. I have an old shoe box behind the piano with my first efforts written in pencil behind me. I might dig it out and release those old stories, once I type them in. They are 30 years old and more now.

I can remember one story called Darth The Once Mighty, I may dig that one out. We used to have a bag of pennies to feed the coffee machine, so that ended up in the story, but with mystical powers, as did the coloured read write rings from computer tapes. Things influence stories that way, they become ingredients in a story. I only know if you all like today’s story, number 1600+ or whatever after I see the viewing figures. I may think you’ll like this one but you don’t. Or I may wonder why you love this story. Shakespeare is big in Poland it would seem, but I only found out after I saw the viewing figures and googled.

I hope my choice of words and stories influences you all for the good. Though Lech, Boris and Gregorgi say they are off to the pub, that is how I’ve influenced them today. Their choice is which pub, and once there they will definitely be under the influence, not of my words but 7 pints of Stella Artois each. If I’m lucky they’ll bring me back some Walkers cheese and onion crisps.