During the last two years, so many things have been beyond our control that it seems we’ve been just along for the ride. It’s as if we all fell down Alice’s rabbit hole and have just now climbed our way back; some of us are still trying to make it out.
Most are way ahead of me, but it’s been hard for everyone. Although, I’ve seen and talked to people who have been going about their lives with very little change except for wearing a mask. Me, I stayed home all through 2020 and most of 2021, but now, after the shots and the booster, I mimic those people.
Except for financially, it hasn’t been so hard on me because I’ve been keeping myself busy with creative projects. Mostly, I’ve been writing a book which, at least for now, I’m calling “Tumbleweed.” I started it during 2020 and completed the draft and first edit pass in the first half of 2021. Three people read it and, taking their feedback into account, I finished the third and final pass (I thought) in September.
I feel that I am a creator, not a promoter. I’m not saying what I create is great — that’s for someone else to judge, but I shoot for my best. Throughout my life I’ve always written: songs, stories, poems, articles, essays, or just my random thoughts. However, I’ve done very little to promote or market any of it. I hope I can change that.
After doing some research in preparation for trying to get an agent, I found that my final is not final. The manuscript is 129,000 plus words. There’s differing opinions about what the acceptable maximum length is but they are all under that. Writing the book has been a joy, but I can’t say I’m excited about getting back into it. I thought I was done, but it looks like I have one more pass where I must do significant cuts. For me, that ain’t easy.
I’ll share more about Tumbleweed, a few excerpts, maybe a cut or two, a little later, since it has now gone back into the status of work-in-progress.
In the meantime, Dan and I, along with David Marshall and Mark Tokach, recorded the song “Along for the Ride,” which feels pretty appropriate for the times about now. I guess we all are always “Along for the Ride” in the sense that there are so many things in life that are out of our control that we have to recognize, go along with, and ride out as best we can, asking, as in the serenity prayer, for the courage to change what we can, and the serenity to accept what we can’t.
The lyrics of this song deal with changing what we can, and are sung to the significant other in the singer’s life. She expresses her desire and decision to control her life and choose which road she turns down, which dream she chases. It’s about being tired of giving control to someone else, being tired of chasing someone else’s dreams that are not her own, about gettin off the passenger side, getting behind the wheel and driving, being tired of going ‘Along for the Ride’
I wrote this song from a very rough bunch of scribblings done at a time when I felt I had no control, when everything I was doing was to promote someone else’s dream and not my own. It was his dream we were living. I went along with the promises of someday — if you make this sacrifice now, someday it will be your turn. I went along for the ride, sitting on the passenger side. I just wanted a little consideration for my plans and desires, just wanted to drive for a little bit.
A video for this song, the song lyrics, and the song and of course, are posted on the home page of this website. Or at this youtube link.
by Jo Wilburn