Characters

Note: I have an essay due tomorrow that I've only half completed.  Senioritis is horrid. 
Note 2: I walked in the rain today without an umbrella so I could pick up Starbucks for my coworkers.  It was fun.  When I tried to use an umbrella, the wind flipped it inside out, reminding me of Mary Poppins. Awesome. 


You learn a lot about the nature of God studying people.  As a writer and a lover of good characters, I tend to be over-observant.  I eavesdrop and spy and watch and stare (warning for those who sit in restaurants near me).  I like to learn about people, how they work, why they do things, what makes them tick, etc.  You'll notice that when I'm interacting with people, I always try to understand them before I take action.  The problem is sometimes I'm wrong, my assumption, though based on good evidence, does not withstand the truth.  However, what I have learned is the intricacy of humans.  People are varied infinitely, so much so that often people don't even understand themselves.  


I don't like psychology.  It tries to categorize people too much, see them as "science" rather than "creations."  It would please me very much to take the "-logy" out of the word and just leave it as is.  "I'm majoring in psycho.  What are you majoring in?"  That would be much more interesting.


There are a lot of people that puzzle me because while I like to understand, sometimes I'm not very understanding.  I have a problem with judging and seeing things from another way other than my own.  I think this is a problem that runs in my entire family.  


My dad was mentioning the other day how all of my friends have messed up families.  I agreed, because its true.  A good majority of my close friends have problematic families.  I told my dad that I tend to be friends with genuine people, and with that, you often get "messed up families" in this generation.  My dad was commenting on how some people don't have any messed up friends.  I said then their friends were usually shallow.


Blanket statements like that...I really shouldn't say them.  I'm sure there isn't really a shallow person out there.  There are just a lot of people who shut the rest of the wealth that is their personality up in some distant recess of their mind so they can function.  There are just too many generalizations because in such a varied world of personalities, the only way to make sense of them is to make generalizations and in the end, cheat yourself out of the wealth humanity has to offer.


This takes me back to God's character.  He created all of these people.  It astounds me how people are so receptive, subconsciously mainly, to the circumstances of their childhood.  People are so shaped by how they grow up.  (This makes me want to just be a totally awesome, Godly parent. It really does.)  It interests me so much how little things in people's pasts become the rudder for the rest of their lives.  I love how God has imprinted His love of design and variation and differences in the world of personalities everyone has out there.  


I have to admit though...some of those personalities drive me mad.  


With that in mind, I want the goal of my stories to focus on the characters.  Because what is the point if you don't learn something new about people when you read literature?  Even books that would never make it into the "classics" category.  If it has creatively and aptly helped to reveal something (not necessarily new) about humans and the "human experience" (which is just a fancy name for "life" or "relationships"), then I would consider it a well-written piece.  Why?  Because it had a good purpose.  


I hope my writing is like that.  


PS - Why is my posts the only ones that look messed up in terms of formatting?