He Who Has Lost It All

What would you do if you lost the people and things you love most? I'm talking, for example, about your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, kids, house, pets, etc . . . And I don't mean that your significant other just leaves you or your kids run away; I mean death. On top of that, what if your house burns to the ground and you lose your job on the very same day? What if you are left totally alone due to unimaginable tragedy?

It's not fun to think about. It's probably inconceivable to you that you could go on living at all. What it is is soul-smashing.

I've lost it all! Time for a beer.

But it makes for great fiction. Personally, I like writing about someone who has lost everything. The hopeless are like lumps of clay in my hands. It may seem horrible to say, but I think its because people/characters that have lost everything are in a sense liberated to become whatever they want or whatever events shape them into. They can become new people. It's like a rebirth: the Phoenix effect. Out of the ashes of the person they were, rises the person they will be. Compelling fodder for good character arcs.

Truthfully, haven't you ever thought about it? If everything you loved was lost, who would you become? What would you pursue? Where would you go? I've talked about it with my wife (much to her chagrin as she isn't much of a fan of morbid subjects), and told her that if she were to die, I would essentially go be a hermit somewhere in the woods . . . maybe the pacific northwest or the Texas hill-country. For some time, I actually thought I might be a cop. Do the night beat. Fight crime. Got nothing to lose. I'm reminded of Bringing out the Dead. I'm sticking with the hermit idea now, though.

It goes without saying (but I'll say it) that I don't want any of this to actually happen. It's an interesting thought experiment, however.

As far as my fiction goes, both Aldon Prandtel, the protagonist in renatus, and Jare Redding, the main character in my upcoming novel A Year Owed (tentative title) have both lost what seems to them like everything. To be honest, I realized a bit late that I might be typecasting my main characters, but I think they are on different journeys, and they are at very different points in their lives. Hopefully, they stand apart.

Okay, that's my ramble.  Now go think about what you'd be if you found yourself alone and adrift on a sea of devastation.  Then be happy after that.