I started a story fifteen years ago called L.C. and the Bardbug and never finished it.  That's par for the course with me.  My legacy, if I leave one at all, will be that of unfinished projects.  I'm not a quitter, mind you, just slow.  I plan on finishing everything I start, regardless of how long ago I started it.  That particular unfinished story is still rattling around in my head, and I'll probably finish it one of these days . . . if I live long enough.

L.C. stands for Lonesome Cowboy, and in the story he's just a working cowboy who gets bitten by the bardbug.  In other words, he starts writing poetry.  Yeah, cowboy poetry, and he was fairly good at it - good enough that cowboy poetry gatherings started inviting him to come and present his poems.  My story was about how all this performing changed his life.  I could write about this first hand back then because I was attending and performing at a lot of cowboy poetry gatherings . . . and was meeting and making friends with lots of guys just like L.C.

Yeah, I knew L.C., and partly because he's based on my own experiences with cowboy poetry, storytelling, and just being a part of that group for a lot of years.  The best friends I've ever had came out of that association, and we're talking friendships that still impact my life on a regular basis.  When it gets right down to it, Cletus Duhon the writer gets half his stories from those experiences and associations. 

Anyway, just to make sure L.C. doesn't get pushed to the back of all the unfinished projects I've got going, I'll tell you a little about what's coming out of the story (when it's done).  You already know the story line, a cowboy on the gathering circuit, but the underlying theme of the story is about how we all deal with loneliness.  A cowboy works perfectly in this scheme of things because nobody in modern society craves individuality more than he does . . . but at the same time, the individualistic cowboy needs as badly as anyone to be connected - a part of something that can defeat his feelings of alienation.

Everyone feels alienated from time to time, especially people who work hard at maintaining their individuality.  We live in a world that preaches teamwork, belonging, connectedness, and membeship.  We pay lots of lip service to individuality, but we do damn little to really encourage it.  If you don't believe me, express your individuality by doing something that goes against the grain with accepted societal standards and see what happens.  The protectors of group interests (and even the interests of other individuals) will be on your ass like white on rice.

I'm not bad-mouthing the need for membership in groups, etc. here.  We all need our social institutions - government, churches, clubs, community, etc.  I'm not sure any of us would be able to live without them because we need the association.  In other words, we need other people because we're social animals.  And we need them because we have a craving to share.  We don't just need to share our successes, but we need to share out failures.  Friends are important to us all, just as family is, or as a church group might be.  We need a place to take our joy . . . and our grief, our hope and our anger.  Alcoholics Anonymous works because it's a place you can walk in with a load of anger and walk out with some serenity.  A problem shared is a problem halved, so goes the old saying.  In short - we all need other people.

Most of my stories are about people caught up in situations with other people.  Sometimes they're a downer because they show the down side of people, but in the end I always try to come up with an uplifting conclusion.  Even the bad associations we have with other people can often turn out to be beneficial to us.  We can't push back all people because a few bad people came after us the cruel or evil intent.  Life is all about shuckin' and choosin', as one old time told me years ago.  The secret of a good life is in learning what to keep and what to throw out.

And that's why I write.  When we learn what worth keeping or what should be thrown out, then we ought to share that with other folks.  It keeps down the feelings of alienation, the loneliness . . . and that's why I write.

C. Duhon, 1/6/08