All Things Come To An End, Right?

Didn't feel like writing this week because of a lot going on in my personal life. The end of an era in a sense. It has me thinking about how quickly things can change. All it takes is a moment and life's trajectory is completely different. Here today and gone tomorrow. My personal emotions go back and forth between mourning the past and eager about the future. It is a tightrope that I am not used to, but I am adjusting.

There is something profoundly sad about things ending in an unfinished state. I still think about shows like Firefly and Drive and even Dollhouse. There was so much more story to explore but a television executive somewhere pulled the plug. Finance is one of the hardest pills to swallow when looking at a story's biopsy. So much potential and effort wasted. Movie, tv show, book, song, the medium doesn't matter. Starting a race but never reaching the finish line is a tragedy. But that tragedy being caused by external factors like money? It hurts the soul.

The author's death hurts in a similar way. In the world of comics, sometimes a protege can step up and keep a story going like in the case of Berserk, but more often, the incomplete story is published as it is. Tintin was one of the first comics I ever read, and I still think about the final incomplete album. Speaking of albums, it is crazy to think about music being released posthumously and topping the charts. The way some record labels squeeze album after album out of loose studio recordings is insane. Both infuriating and depressing at the same time. It is almost better to leave it incomplete and unpublished like they do with most authors.

Beside time and money, the third great and terrible end to a story is the author. As odd as it sounds since they gave birth to the entire thing, but the author can ruin their story in a thousand different ways. From disagreements between co-writers to eagerness to get to the next project, it is hard to look at a book series and realizes it will never conclude. I don't blame most of them and I understand the various reasons. I was six books into one mystery series, and I suddenly realized the sixth book wasn't going to wrap it up. I assumed that after ten years of no new books that the sixth one was supposed to be the last. I was wrong. The first book was adapted into a show and fans didn't care for it, so the author quit. Just like that.

I am not bringing any of this up to mean I am giving up on any project I am working on, but I have been thinking about the fragility of all of this recently. Life could be gone without a warning. All the more reason to work hard while the sun still shines. I have to work harder. As long as I have time. As long as I have support. As long as I have the heart. I have to keep going until the end. Right?

Today's song: FASHO by Aaron Cole

Randomly heard this song in the background last week and I decided to shazam it. Fast forward and it is a little bit of a battle chant to push me forward.