Means, Motive & Opportunity

“’Why’ doesn’t matter!” Auntie used to proclaim loudly and often. Back in 2009, before I became really comfortable with this whole blogging thing, I even posted a rant on the subject:

http://scarycookies.blogspot.com/2009/05/whys-have-it.html

But now I’m not so sure. The older I get, the more motivation seems to matter.

Think about it. When someone says something that hits you the wrong way, the first thing you do is look at why they said it.

If it was a joke that whiffed, then it’s probably nothing. (Unless it suddenly revealed subconscious hostility, an unattractive personality trait or was a reference to some TV show you really hate.)

But if it wasn’t a joke, if the speaker really meant it, or meant something even worse, then you react accordingly. (I trust my exquisitely courteous and polite readers also to react appropriately.)

The “why” is everything.

Maybe Auntie has been reading too many murder mysteries lately, but motivation seems to matter more and more these days. Not in any Machiavellian sense, but just plain having a damn good reason for doing whatever you do. Did. Did do. You know.

If the only reason to do something is to have done it when it’s over, then why should you even bother?

Yeah, okay, you caught me. Busted.

I’m still talking about NaNoWriMo here.

Unless you want to hear about laundry or car repairs or Melva’s trip to the eye doctor, that’s all I’ve got for you at the moment. Tomorrow I start testing recipes for Hanukah-giving*, but until I have to pick up my admirable and adorable mother, I have time to sit here and type. That gives me about an hour either to work on my 1,667 or to wonder to you why I should.

Like last year, Auntie started NaNoWriMo to be one of the cool kids. Like last year, all of the actual cool kids have stopped already. Even the one I didn’t know had started until he told me he stopped has stopped.

(One of them says he’s going to finish writing his novel but not on this particular schedule. That’s not a NaNoWriMo, it’s a perfectly laudable NoWri, or it will be eventually. Let’s all cross our fingers for him, because it sounds like a great story.)

Auntie has finished four and a half unpublished novels, one of which was quite good. I have nothing to prove there. And I did last year’s NaNoWriMo to the end, though I deleted it afterward.

So if “why” matters, then all I’ve got is that I started this so I should finish it.

If “why” doesn’t matter, then I got nothing. Sic.

Nothing but 8,447 fairly entertaining words, that is.

Which is an answer in itself, or if it isn’t, it’s all I’m going to get.

Sigh.

*For the uninformed, this year is the first time in 125 years that Hanukah and Thanksgiving fall on the same day. Blue and white cornucopias for everyone!