And it’s Monday again…

And I FINALLY started my walking/exercise program again.  At least I did it today; first time in at least a couple of months.  I think I must’ve gotten out of the habit about the time I found myself smoking after I had supposedly quit.  (I guess it’s like ‘if I’m going to fail at one thing, I might as well fail at everything else.’  Ugh, that’s not good.)

There are many good things about my walks though.  Of course there is the expected results of feeling my body get more firm and in shape, getting stronger, and feeling better all the way around – but also I listen to music on my cell phone while I walk and there are times that I don’t even manage to listen to music for days at a time otherwise – for some strange reason.  And walking is also a good way to get one’s creative juices working; I often come up with various story ideas or other kinds of inspiration.  And apparently I’m not the first person to have such thoughts:  I recently received one of “Dr. Mardy’s Quote of the Week” emails, entitled “In Need of a Good Idea?  Take a Hike.”  And then there is this article:  Maira Kalman on Walking as a Creative Device and the Difference Between Thinking and Feeling, on BrainPickings (I love this site).

So, this morning as I was walking, I was listening to a song – not even sure what it was, but it reminded me of something.  And it came to me that it reminded me of the music from the HALO video games my son used to play.  And I found myself having these insights into a story idea that’s been in my head, and I think it could even be woven into the manuscript I started years ago (which I called “Apocalypse”), combining those concepts with Sitchin‘s theory that aliens were here long ago and genetically engineered humans, and the idea that in the future they come back.  It fits with the idea of how religion started and how it continues to divide us and fool us (or SOME) into believing aliens are angels, etc., etc. from my original story.  And there was this “Halo-ish” feel to it in my head – about humans having to fight for our survival against large odds.

Then I started thinking about the fact that when it comes down to it we are motivated primarily by our instincts to survive and to procreate – just like every other living thing on this planet.  So what makes us any different?  And if it were to come down to our defending our humanity – well we are MORE than the apes we evolved from; but what is that MORE?  And if there is no God (i.e., if religion developed as a superstition/bi-product of the alien influence in our prehistory), then where is our redemption?  If I were to write this story I would want to come up with some kind of idea about that; some kind of ultimate HOPE.  I would not want to end with the idea of humanity just struggling to survive against a cold, meaningless universe filled with threats for all eternity – like in the Halo stories wherein humanity is losing the fight.  It’s kind of a compelling concept though the question is whether I can or will ever do anything with it.  But why not?  I have to believe that I can write such a book.  When the time is right.  And up until that time wherein I am actually writing it, it can keep germinating in my head.

What kind of research would I need to do?  Well I’ve been thinking about putting it a thousand years in the future; I wonder how others might have theorized how things might be circa 3000 AD or so.  That might be fun to look into. Then there’s the nature of religion, and that of astronomy in terms of this idea of a rogue planet (“Nibiru”) and the effects of such a planet coming into our solar system.  And I do not know why I originally put my story in Boston?  I have never even been to that part of the country; it makes much more sense to put it here on the West Coast, in the Bay Area, with which I am familiar.  Why on earth would I do it any differently?  This is a good spot for a story – better than if I lived in Kansas or Oklahoma or something.  If aliens were going to come, then San Francisco is a more reasonable place for them to arrive than lots of other places, I would think.

Anyway, in thinking further about “Halo,” and remembering how much I liked watching my son play it, I realized that it wasn’t the game so much that I liked, it was the MUSIC.  (Plus, I remember some of the graphics were fantastic.) And when I think about all the games I used to like to watch my son play, I realized that video game soundtracks are often very good.

So when I got back to the house, I looked it up online and started listening to all of these soundtracks.  Here’s a site that I found:

best video game soundtracks

Personally, I think the Halo soundtracks are really wonderful.

[My original link to a video of the complete soundtrack here had to be removed due to a copyright problem]

And here you can see some of the great landscapes from Halo:

And here are some other amazing video game screen shots.  Some of the artwork is really amazing.  And this is a forum for art that never really occurred to me before.  I find it rather fascinating.

And yes, walking is a wonderful thing – strange and wonderful things can happen.