Is it a story?

 

This is an experiment. Can I write 335 words a day, six days a week, for 25 weeks? 150 days of writing would yield an ideal 50,250 words.  

    Can I also manage a blog? I’d post 250 words a day, three times a week. Each post would polish a 335-word segment.

            I didn’t know if I would have a theme. Then one presented itself, in an op-ed column in The Washington Post. Megan McCardle discusses aging presidents and the issue of cognitive capacity. She goes on to ask whether a constitutional amendment could set an upper age limit for holders of the office. She suggests seventy-two.

            Her suggestion solves a problem for me, perhaps more than one. First, as a writer, what shall I write about? Second, I enjoy time-limited projects. Third, I am 85 years old and am experiencing cognitive issues, mainly concerning memory. I could lengthen the list, but these are enough for one day.

            The influence of the world interests me. There is the self; all our lives we work to establish it. There is the world; it influences us in many different ways.

I had searched for a theme in fairy tales and mythology. Religious stories are in the same category. I had searched the internet and found types of story structure. In one, “monomyth,” a story is based on a single tale, etc.

            I’m more worried about my cognitive situation. I’ve entered a new world. How do I live in it? Is it a story?