The Factor: Act Two

In some ways, I wish I could begin this post by telling you that this whole Factor thing has been one big ruse and that you’ve all fallen victim. But I can’t tell you that. The Factor is all too “real” and by its nature commands attention. I mentioned in the earlier post that there is likely a Factor in all of us, the question only being what it is and how to discover it. For me, I have found the two keys to the Factor in my life and yet only one of them is really essential to the Factor’s discovery. The catch is that these two keys will evolve over time. Everything evolves. Nothing ever stops.

Now, before we proceed you each must ask yourself a critical question which was essentially explicated in the first post. Do you really want to live? And I don’t just mean having a pulse. I mean really live. If so, then the quest for the Factor must begin at some point or another. That’s an issue of timing and perhaps that time has not come for some of you. Such a quest involves critical reflection (Socrates -- “An unexamined life is a life not worth living”) and risk (Brennan Manning -- “To live without risk is to risk not living”). Whatever you do, don’t be overzealous or overly idealistic here. If you do, it will come back to haunt you and you will resent it. Begin only when it’s time to begin. That time is arriving for me.

The Factor cannot be explained in simple words. It is mysterious by nature. It is because of this that I am unable to just tell you straight up what it is for me. The best description I can give you for the Factor is that it is the thing that gives you purpose. It is the thing that, when you look at it, makes you say, “Yes, this is what I am ‘destined’ to do.” Does this mean that there is such thing as “destiny” or “fate”? Well, yes and no. It’s perhaps a strange parallel to the nature vs. nurture debate. There’s a big both/and going on here. We are given some inexplicable gifts (or drives or desires or capabilities or talents or whatever the hell you want to call them) that lead us in certain directions. We have a great deal of freedom on what we do with these. However, to deny them or try to work against them with every part of your being (and yet even doing that might be essential to discovering them - such was the case for me) will ultimately lead to a self-implosion. Sure, we can do whatever the hell we want to do with our lives. We are supposed to write our own story. But some stories make a much better read than other stories. And it’s usually those stories that are told to your children. I am attempting to pick apart a mystery here which doesn’t do it justice. But I wanted to give you a better idea (since I have done a poor job up to this point) of where I am going with all of this.

The keys (at this point) for thewalrus:

Key One: The novel

Key Two: The girl

The first key is absolutely essential. The second key could turn out to be but is not at this point. The second key can always change into something else. The only reason I feel that Key Two is even a key is because it is interacting with Key One and helping it to develop. Key Two is (I think) the more potentially explosive of the two. That is because it potentially deals with the only thing that can make or break the Factor for me: love. The one thing that I adore and fear the most in life.

But I assure you, when the Factor is made known, “Nothing will be the same. Nothing will be what it seems. And everything and everyone who encounters it will have to reckon with its force...

because it will have won from the inside out...”

Pardon my repeat ending and my sudden departure but I should get back to writing my novel before nighttime arrives... I’ve got a dinner appointment to catch...