I flew down to see my Mom recently and got the heady experience of hanging out in the clouds for a while. The plane hit a bit of turbulence after takeoff, but that was because we entered the world of fluffy white poofs; I was glued to the window. I’m sure I’ve taken other plane rides like this one, but we kept going in and out, parting the mist and vapor, and it would all close in around us again. And always there was more floof and always more poof. It was exciting and took me back to childhood dreams of flying. You know, if I could fly like superman: point up and go up. This is what I imagined it to be.

I was torn between watching the clouds and re-reading a classic. I kept going back and forth, both were so rich and exciting that I couldn’t decide which to concentrate on. I didn’t remember 1984 as an exciting book when I read it as a high schooler. Sure, there were the main takeaways of gaslighting and control, but there was so much more in my reading this time around. Do I need to revisit all the classics that I’ve already crossed off my list? Time and experience are opening new portals into the sentences. 

1984 is an amazing book to read as a study of the craft. I kept turning the pages, wanting more: the plot pulled me forward, sometimes pushing, and it was difficult to put it down to wonder at the sky that passed by my window. I want to create a work of art that compels readers along in the same way. It won’t be a world of thought police; our phones do a good enough job there now (in fact, reading about a world where thought police exist helps me find gratefulness for the freedoms and pleasures that I do have – for now). And it holds up. Wow this book holds up. So, yes, it’s time to reread everything I’ve ever read… to think that I might be capable of creating something half as beautiful is a dream. But flying through these clouds is a dream too.

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