SARAH JACOBY BLOG POST #7/14

"This is how we go on: one day at a time, one meal at a time, one pain at a time, one breath at a time. Dentists go on one root-canal at a time; boat-builders go on one hull at a time. If you write books, you go onone page at a time. We turn from all we know and all we fear. We study catalogues, watch football games, choose Sprint over AT&T. We count the birds in the sky and will not turn from the window when we hear the footsteps behindus as something comes up the hall; we say yes, I agree that clouds often look like other things - fish and unicorns and men on horseback - but they are really only clouds. Even when the lightening flashes inside them we say they are only clouds and turn our attention to the next meal, the next pain, the next breath, the next page. This is how we go on."

When a huge part of what gave your life happiness and inspiration it causes everything you do, see, and feel to lose its' meaning. Life feels as though it slows down, it is not longer whirl wind of events that fly by because you are enjoying them so much. Everything becomes its own separate event that you have to get through to get to the next thing. You cannot possible imagine being happy again anytime in the future so you no longer plan long term, you take life one day one task at a time. The main character has to remain focused on simply putting one foot in front of the other, he takes one step at a time. Clouds are just that, clouds; he no longer sees the wonder behind in them in millions of possibles shapes and creatures they can take. This simple staircase depicts how the main character is moving through his life, one step at a time. Slowly, but surely making progress in a direction he has not control over nor does he care what it is. These stairs have only one direction, up and forward just like his life. Every step is the same, and it is just that-a step; nothing meaningful or special behind any one of them.

Stephen King, Bag of Bones (New York: Pocket Books, 1998), page 223

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