Late Fall

This picture was taken by Carol about a month ago while she and Richard were on their daily walk. The focus of the shot reminds me of seeing the trees rather than the forest which is easier here as many have already lost their summer dressings.

I like to think of the days as trees and the year of trees as a small forest. The thought, if centered within, should slow you down. Let’s say fifty years of tree growth equals a day or putting it another way fifty years equals one day.

For a human being under such circumstances two-thirds of herorhis life is over in twenty-four hours. This thought should speed you up. In fact, there would be a lot of lifetimes in a year of such a circumstance. What do you think, orndorff?

What comes to mind almost immediately is Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. Time plays with our sense of reason. We arrive, grow and die in human time not tree time.

I suddenly see a problem for the Dead in book four. They perceive things in human time and the projection of the Place of the Dead is in what time?

Human time. It would not make sense otherwise.

But if the Dead have to negotiate with you, what time are you in? Who are you in the story anyway?

I run the Place and charge rent.

I thought you were going to say you were the Custodian.

I am putting this in near human terms here.

This doesn’t make sense. What can you charge the Dead?

The same as I charge you, orndorff, your time.

As I am contentedly retired I don’t mind. I enjoy the time thinking, writing and then sharing.

It is nearly the same. The Dead don’t mind either, most of them in the story anyway. They spend their time thinking or dreaming or at the meetangreets or at an intimate meeting with a friend for example. Then I collect. This has already been inferred in the Merlyn books.

How many main characters?

Three. Two handsome men and a beautiful woman. Plus, two minor characters, another beautiful woman and a handsome man.

How did you come up with five people?

Four fingers and a thumb.

In real life people are not all handsome or beautiful.

The Dead can choose the best of their likeness to present themselves to others. Usually they choose to be in their twenties to fifties even if they didn’t live that long. To those who listen, the voice sounds much as it did in life.

To a complete outsider of the species what would the Dead look like?

A brain with an attached spinal column. That is also inferred in the Merlyn books.

I remember that, but it came to mind as a question.

I have a question for you, orndorff. Where do you think you will be some twenty to thirty years from now?

I will most likely be dead. Thus, a few ashes scattered about in my favorite places if daughter does her job. Will I still be conscious? I would like to think so, but if I am not I lived a life. This is not a morbid subject to me. I find it quite interesting as I always have. So, if I lived a life then I imagined being consciously Dead, I don’t see how I lose anything by this line of thinking. I hope this won’t be a depressing book for the reader.

A few will be interested.