Ever notice that the moment you make one statement about something, the opposite appears just as likely? For example, if I say 'the world is going to hell in a handbasket' then I start to think 'look at all the good that is going on in the world'. Think about all the human suffering caused by totalitarian regimes. But Hussein is dead having been convicted of murdering several hundred Iraqis. The judicial system worked. And yet, at the same time, he was executed before the trials of the genocide of the Kurds. Back and forth we go from satisfaction that something is going right in the world to everything is wrong.
My personal prediction for 2007 is this: the world will continue to evolve in exactly this fashion. As human beings, we seem to think in terms of opposites and so it should be no surprise that our history and culture seems to lurch from one contradiction to another along a circuitous and bumpy path.
At this time of year, all of us turn to thoughts of personal goals. Some want to lose weight and be kinder to our spouses and children. Be better people. But how long do these resolutions last? We back track and make excuses for ourselves and this is human nature. How can our world be any different?
For me, these next years, I want to explore new terrain. I've spent a long time writing about the world of Harry Jenkins, Toronto lawyer and decent man who must somehow find his way in a world of cotnradictions, all set out in the Osgoode Trilogy [Conduct in Question, Final Paradox and a Trial of One.]
Next, I want to turn to a trilogy of novellas I'm working on provisionally titled Fleeting Moments. You can find the short story Fleeting Moments in my list of short stories and find out about a character, Alexander Wainwright. Its an entirely different world in which I want to explore such fascinating matters as synchronictiy and how it happens. So, that is my direction for 2007 which will probably contain numerous 'lurches' along the path.
Please visit me at www.maryemartin.com or send me an email at osgoode.trilogy.yahoo.com
Best wishes for a great 2007
Mary E. Martin
