Hello, friends!

I love to cover my wall with quotes that I find inspirational or thought-provoking. I don’t always have context for them, or even a source. Often when I discover one I will pull out a sharpie (or other pen with very sharp black ink), write it out on a notecard, and then search out the best spot to fit it in among the many others. I almost wallpapered my room with these things back in university, and then I lost them in the various transitions I had between leaving university, renting several small spaces, and eventually marrying the love of my life and moving in with her. I’ve started up again in my current home, and I’m going to share them every once in a while.

This week, I want to share the quote that sits at eye level above my laptop, right on the wall of my workspace:

There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside yourself.

Musashi

To be honest, I don’t know much about Musashi himself; I was captivated by what I felt the spirit of this quote to be. I don’t interpret it literally, either in the sense that literally everything is within me or the sense that I literally have no need for anything outside of myself. When I read this quote I think about how only I can make myself get out of bed at a reasonable time, stick to a worthwhile morning routine, make myself write daily, make myself strive to improve my craft, make myself work to pay the bills (and try to improve my professional skills to become more effective at that). In the sense that only I can choose to make the moves required to improve and better myself, nothing exists outside of me, and everything exists within. Even if someone were to, for some reason, gift me with enough money that I no longer have to struggle for my passions if I don’t want to… that still won’t make me better at what I want to do. I still have to put in the time and the work. (Actually, if anything, it’s more likely to make me lose progress in various hopes and dreams, as I might come to rely on that monetary gift rather than myself, and in that comfortable, lazy outward focus stop working on improving myself.)

Any philosophy or idea that focuses on inward aspects needs to be treated with care, lest one risk becoming selfish, but I don’t believe that’s the message being shared here. (And maybe those much more versed in Musashi than myself are rolling their eyes because I’m stating what should be obvious, or because I’m completely off base. I don’t really care. This quote has helped me to push myself more to try and be better. I guess, amusingly and paradoxically, I did find something outside myself that is helping me to be better, stronger, etc, although it’s my work that makes the actual difference—the quote just incentivized effort.)

Hopefully this intro came across as inspirational rather than preachy; that was my intent, anyway. What quotes do you keep around, and why?

Bloggyness Review: The Return of Santiago

Last week I finished Mike Resnick’s Santiago, and this week I finished The Return of Santiago. The sequel, published about two decades later, was not as strong as the first book.

The Return of Santiago, as the name implies, focuses on the return of the mythical figure Santiago to a far-future sci-fi wild west, Santiago being a mysterious outlaw who constantly outsmarts the government and has a reputation for heinous crime, but secretly is a revolutionary pushing back against government excesses. As a fan of limited government (and vigilante justice in story, but not in real life), the idea of Santiago easily appealed to me and greatly elevated the first book. In The Return of Santiago, the final Santiago has been dead for about a century and the main character, Dante, has decided to find a new man to take up the mantle of Santiago. The book takes a few twists and turns, Dante finds multiple candidates for the job, but if you don’t know who Santiago will by by halfway through the book (at the latest) then you aren’t paying much attention. (I didn’t find that clarity an issue—it provided a lot of dramatic irony in the book and helped make the ending satisfying.)

The Return of Santiago feels very similar to the first in the writing style and book organization. It’s sectioned out into several stories that focus on different characters, even if the viewpoint mostly always follows Dante. So in themes and writing style, the book felt very familiar, making it almost a comfort read. Unfortunately, in retreading so much ground it also fails to bring much new to the table, and as a result I found myself much less engaged than with the first book. (It also didn’t help that this book featured a lot more swearing than the first, a disappointing shift in content.)

If you read and enjoy Santiago and want more of about the same, Return of Santiago may scratch your itch. I wouldn’t read Santiago with the expectation of the sequel about equal or better, though.

I will say this much: The Return of Santiago fed me with a lot of ideas and inspiration that may get incorporated in my future sci-fi universe. (Not Robot Cannibal Apocalypse—although finishing that trilogy is my next big project.)

Loose Ends

The only other updates I have are that I’ve begun editing on Old Lace and Hairballs again, and that I’m almost finished with draft one of the language creation article. I may or may not publish that one through BYU’s Leading Edge (provided they accept it)—the contract with Leading Edge would prevent me from posting it on my own website for 6 months, and I need to weigh whether or not that is worth it.

Send-Off

But seriously, share with me your favorite quotes!