F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Painting

One Painting…Two Dogs

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Just Checking In To Say "Hi!" (Artwork by Rémi Jouandet [see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons)
Just Checking In To Say “Hi!” (Artwork by Rémi Jouandet [see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons)
Early into our vacation, like a day or so, something really weird happened.

Note: I’m going to respect my folks’ privacy and only tell the minimum of specific names and such.

While my dad was watching TV and his dog, Boomer (name has been changed for privacy), was lying on the floor by his side, I was in the kitchen, doing something that most probably involved food, when I heard a bark—then my dad calling me over.

When I get into the living room, my dad tells me that Boomer was just lying quietly on the floor, when he all of a sudden went upright…and stared at this painting that was on the living-room wall. Barked at it. When I came in, Boomer was no-kidding-up-on-the-couch with his forepaws, back straight as an arrow, nose angled directly into the painting. He was very agitated, did those doggy “whiny sounds,” and may have again barked. But, both my dad and I looked to each other (definitely amused…highly curious)…and to Boomer…and the painting.

What the hell?

Preserving the privacy of this artwork, all I’m going to say is that in the painting (that had been up on the wall for a while, maybe towards a year?), two dogs are depicted: Boomer, and another, Rin Tin (again, not its real name).

Rin Tin is deceased.

Boomer remained agitated and brought his nose right up to the painting, less than an inch away from it, again, his whole body straight as an arrow. I put one hand to the painting’s frame, while holding the other nearby Boomer’s face, in case he decided to lunge and/or bite at the frame or painting. Dad and I are chuckling and wondering what the heck was going on, when Boomer did the weirdest thing:

He stuck his nose directly to the depiction of Rin Tin, sniffed it for a second or two…then abruptly departed.

That was it.

He jumped off of the couch and came to us as if nothing had happened.

Dad and I are laughing and looking to ourselves, totally baffled (well, truth be told, I had an idea). For the rest of our near week and a half there, Boomer never paid anymore attention to Rin Tin’s painted image.

Okay, you know I’m about to get kinda weird, here, but here’s what I believe happened:

Rin Tin was my folks’ previous dog and had to be put to sleep (turns out we were there, visiting, my wife and I, and one of my brothers, Chris). I love animals, and am particularly fond of dogs. I miss Rin Tin, and the day we arrived on the current vacation two weeks ago, I was actually wondering if Rin Tin might make, well, an appearance, now that I was here. Rin Tin’s cremains are in an “urn” my dad made (which was what I’d seen that first day and got me to thinking about all this), and I made a point to go to it a couple times while there, and “reach out” to Rin Tin. After all, I reasoned, I had a really cool experience with my last dog, Mac, and wondered if I would have a similar experience with Rin Tin.

I really believe that Rin Tin had reached out to us to let us know she was there…and was just saying “Hi.” I had lots of fun with her. I just have a way with dogs…and dogs generally like (okay, love) me. And I couldn’t be there when she was actually put down. I feel this was her way of saying “hello” one more time to dad and me…meeting the “new fur”…letting us know that she’s still “around.” The only ones in the area were my dad, Boomer, and me.

That painting had been up on the wall for a long time, and Boomer had never reacted to it at all. What the heck else could it have been? What the heck could have possibly caused a dog to behave that way? He went right to Rin Tin’s image, not his own.

I was right there, with Boomer, at the painting when it happened, saw exactly where Boomer’s nose went—it was directly and unhesitatingly to Rin Tin’s image, not concerned with his own image at all. I’ve seen dogs bark at the TV, but never a static image like that, especially when the image had been around in the dog’s presence for a while, with no prior reaction to it.

It truly ranks as one of the weirdest things I’ve ever witnessed!

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Inspiration

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A friend of mine and I were discussing writerly inspiration, when I got inspired to “pen” this post.

What is it and where does it come from?

Can you force it?

Hey, maaan, got any techniques to maximize its potential?

I may be a bit too hardline in my way of thinking, but I really feel that each of us are built to do certain things. Sure, we can change our direction[s], and that can get heavy into metaphysics (which I do get into, below), but as to “teaching” others how to be inspired…well, all I got is that you “simply” need to allow yourself to be aware of your own, unique, whispers.

That’s it. No secret handshakes, no intricate nor arcane protocols.

Tell yourself you allow yourself to be inspired. Go on, do it now. Out loud. Mean it.

People—it seems to me—are always looking outside themselves to find themselves. Trying to unnecessarily complicate matters.

All we are is within us.

All you need to know is already within you and me. We simply have to become aware of who we are, and to do that we need to listen to our inner voices (my standard disclaimer of mental aberrations and crazed ax-murderer inclinations NOTwithstanding…).

You already know who you are.

You do, I bet you do.

You may be afraid to admit it, you may be obfuscating it with other issues, but deep down, it’s all there. Sometimes we have to dig through all kinds of other “stuff” first, and that is something some need to do. There’s a reason for that, and you have to find it, discover your own answers—no one else can do that for you. Techniques for that are abundant, but it again comes down to listening to yourself, your thoughts, your dreams, how you deal with the world…ask yourself questions and allow the answers to come in whatever form they choose to reveal themselves to you in. A TV show, a dream, a phrase on a roadside sign.

Now, the flipside to that—for creative types—is, well, okay, I know who I am, yeah, I’m cool with that, but I seem to have issues expressing it. Please, to help me, Kind Sir!

See above there are no secret handshakes, no intricate nor arcane protocols.

We all have daily inspiration. It’s unavoidable. The problem might appear to be that you are not experiencing what you feel inspiration should be.

The problem may be that you got inspired to write a book, paint an acrylic, and now, nothing else is coming forthwith.

This is what I have to say, and you may not like it, and where my hardcore view comes into play.

You may not a writer nor a painter be.

You may have experienced a bout of said, you may have been inspired to do a single or handful of singular creative acts, for whatever reason your inner self needed that expression, but you may not be a writer. May not be a painter.

And there’s nothing wrong with that!

You may be a reader…may be a viewer…an illustrator, a coder, a cover artist. A cop.

And—getting totally metaphysical on your collective asses—I feel this is the case because you may be very well already be said writer or painter in another life…another existence…but in this existence, you’re experiencing the other side of the coin.

Life is far too complex, too rich to be limited to one single, expendable existence. It’s far too limiting a concept, so I believe we have to live other, simultaneous existences…where all our other existences interact…bleeding through talents, and, yes, inspiration…to all of our other existences.

And what is inspiration?

From Merriam-Webster, it’s “something that makes someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create: a force or influence that inspires someone.”

Where does it come from?

It comes from the nonphysical realms of which the mind is a part. And that gets into individual beliefs. But, for me it comes from the playgrounds of the soul. I look at the brain as the medium, the means of intersection between the physical body and the nonphysical mind. I do not see the mind so much as resident within the brain, but Venn diagrammed with it. Accessed through the brain. And as such, our mind has access to a wondrous and neverending array of concepts we simply cannot even begin to imagine…but try to! We have such wondrous access. And since our beliefs drive our lives, and since beliefs are nonphysical, part of our mind, if we don’t believe we can do something or don’t believe we have access to something, anything nonphysical will be so hindered. Our beliefs are the keys to our lives…our thoughts.

So, “forcing” inspiration? See above.

Additionally, what if some inspiration is a thought or a feeling from one of your other selves? One of your other selves’s actual experiences?

Inspiration.

Now, for just a minute, play a little gedankenexperiment. Try to imaging that the life you’re living now is not the prime, only life…but that this life is a probable life to another you, somewhere else…bemoaning their existence and wondering what the hell you’re doing…that they could actually be you.

Wicked freaky, huh?

And, admit it, as belief systems go, wouldn’t you rather that kind of universe exist over one that says you have but one—and only one—life to live? Wouldn’t it take the pressure off having to do one and only one thing? Doesn’t it leave a bit of breathing room, my friends?

Doesn’t it put an entirely different spin on a lot of questions? A lot of angst?

People may use Tarot cards, chicken bones, scrying, handheld pendulums, or whatever to “deliver” inspiration, and that’s fine, it’s okay, it’s part of who they are…and you can go ahead and try them. But, I say, and truly mean this, because I really do care about people, listen to yourselves. Discover what makes you tick and just be yourself. As for writer’s block, that is usually not so much a lack of inspiration, but (in my humble opinion) an obfuscation of inspiration. Something is blocking your methods and I feel it’s usually stress or some other issue that needs resolution before you can move forward. Sometimes you just need to stop and take stock, but I feel the correction to “writer’s block” is as varied as—and directly related to—the causes, rather than just listing out a series of “steps” to follow. Again, listening to your inner self can only help.

And if you’re not a writer, have no more writerly inspiration in you, that’s okay. Write out your one or two books and be good with it, if no more ever comes to you…or doesn’t manifest itself for years to come. Enjoy your life and who you are. Move on.

We need readers, too.