Poop Or Get Off The Pot

I thought the story about Thomas Crapper was, well, a bunch of crap. Urban legends that people just made up and passed around as truth. Turns out he was a real guy. Contrary to popular belief though, he didn’t actually invent the toilet, although he did make several improvements to plumbing and was also a big advocate for moving outhouses indoors. Thank goodness.

I have thoughts about 2025. I’m not big on making new year resolutions, but there are some things I’d like to pursue more fully this year. Mostly these are things I started in 2024, discovered, you might say, and would like to develop more this year. I don’t have any specific goals for these things, but that’s really just because I’m not entirely sure what I want to do with them yet beyond just having fun and enjoying them.

One of the things that disenfranchised me so much about writing was that siren call of “success.” I honestly thought I could make a living at it. I didn’t think publication would be that hard, and I had no idea it would require so much time and energy. Don’t get me wrong; I’m still writing, and I still love it. I’m just approaching it now from a totally different perspective. Before, I was entering contests and submitting to magazines and chasing down publication. That was my whole goal with writing, winning contests and getting published. Now I’m just doing it for fun, which is how I should have been doing it all along. I’m still entering contests and still submitting work to magazines, but I no longer care about whether it wins or gets published. It’s nice not putting that kind of pressure on myself, and it helps me enjoy the process that much more.

It also helps that I’ve discovered new interests that also call for my attention. In 2024, I learned more about photography and cinematography. You could say I tripped over that rabbit hole and fell deeply down inside. I’ve had a blast learning about lighting and composition and blocking and framing and angles and movement and all the cool tricks and techniques. I started looking at the world more through the lens of a camera and gaining some new perspectives. What does the world look like from the wings of an airplane? How does light and shadow play through the windows of a sun roof?

I also rediscovered an old interest I’ve had ever since I was a kid, putting together models. A few years ago, for Christmas or maybe for my birthday, my family bought me a Revell 1/72 scale model Millennium Falcon. I started building it, but then we moved into the new house, and it sat abandoned at the top of my closet for a couple years. I pulled it out several months ago, bought some fresh supplies, and got back into it. It’s a far cry from the airplane and car models I built as a teenager. This thing came with more than 900 pieces, some of them no larger than the tip of a pencil! I’ve enjoyed working on it. It’s peaceful and relaxing. It’s all assembled now and ready for painting, decals, and weathering. For Christmas this year, my family bought me an airbrush. I can’t wait to use it. I also have an idea to build a diorama for it, Docking Bay 94 from A New Hope (“What a piece of junk!”), complete with fuel lines and working lights.

And of course I’m still writing. I have one story submitted already for 1st quarter Writers of the Future. I’m already drafting another story for 2nd quarter. And I have an idea for a story for 3rd quarter. That’s good progress for me in a single contest year. If I can get all three submitted, that’ll be a new personal record for me. I also have a handful of older stories I want to send out to magazines for publication.

The nice thing about discovering these new hobbies is it takes the focus (“obsession”?) off any one in particular, especially the writing. Possibly the reason I’m no longer concerned about winning contests or getting published in magazines is because I’m finding joy and happiness in other interests. I can distract myself away with other fun new projects. I used to think of myself as a “writer,” and my identity was wrapped up in that. And when I didn’t find what I thought was success as a writer, it made me feel like maybe I wasn’t such a creative person after all. But what I’ve discovered over the past year, especially with these new interests, is that I am a creative person, and writing is just one way my creativity manifests itself.

The other benefit of these new hobbies is they take my mind off the craziness about to unfold in the world in 2025. Team Crazy is once again tooting the locomotive horn as it drives our government’s train clean off the rails, and no one can seem to do anything to stop it. Certainly not me. Besides getting out and voting and staying engaged in my community, I have no control over any of that. So I’ve learned to just let it go. I’m no longer engaging in social media. I’m no longer getting worked up in a frenzy and giving my energy to things I can’t control. It’s freed up a tremendous amount of time, which I can now devote to my new-found and re-found interests, things I can actually control and enjoy.

It took me a long time to figure all this out. Years. I had been sitting on the toilet and stewing about it for so long that the backs of my legs had gone numb. But I feel like the start of this new year is also the start of something new for me. If nothing else, at least a new way of seeing things. 2025 is hopefully the year where I can zip up my pants, flush all the old stuff down the crapper, and get on with doing fun, new things, regardless of everything else going on in the world.

I hope this new year brings you new fun and exciting things too. Let’s make it a good one!