Beware the Moods of March

What can I say in the face of such uncertainty? Can I write my way out?

Photo by J Cruikshank on Unsplash

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”
― Pablo Picasso

It’s been a rough few weeks.

I know. “What do you have to complain about? You’re not living in a country that’s an active war zone. Silly American, thinking it’s all about you.”

While I understand the sentiment — and, believe me, I wouldn’t be writing certain scenarios in my recent fiction if the war in Ukraine were not weighing heavily on my mind — I find it necessary to conceptualize and document these times in my writing. Since Medium is one outlet for my writing these days, obviously I’m going to share such thoughts and ideas here.

“Oh, it’s business as usual,” you may think when you see new updates such as pieces like “My Best Friend’s Mother” and “My Wife’s Sister” — though it’s really not that simple. Whether my writing treads the line of seriousness or fluffiness or just outright absurdity, I’m often trying to distract myself in some fashion.

Case in point: when the thought of nuclear war is suddenly on the back-burner of your mind, what can you do to quell the noise? You can’t do anything to stop world politics and their war games, so you seek out something you…