The real sons of PNM
Wednesday, July 21, 2004 at 6:18PM A Neat Trio of Posts
Dateline: above the garage in Portsmouth RI, 21 July 2004
The universe seems to be collapsing in on our family schedule as the departure date looms ever larger for our trip to China. I feel like I should be taking the kids to the beach every night between now and early August, because once we are wheels up, we won't see Second Beach until Labor Dayówhen actually the water is at its warmest up here.
Struggling with my allergies through this long dry spell in Rhode Island (my Monday in Manhattan was a nice respite), I glance foggily toward Beijing and then at my rapidly-filling fall calendar. If I'm not careful, I'm going to be booked for speeches every day from Labor Day through Christmas. I'm going to have to make myself a giant wall calendar so I can keep the dates straight. Staring into my Blackberry just isn't doing it any more.
As I glance over the rest of 2004's calendar, I'm more and more glad I didn't commit myself to quickly dashing off a sequel to PNM, or what I have dubbed in past posts as the "Son of PNM." Between all the speeches (meaning travel) and my editor Mark Warren's growing enthusiasm for turning my decade-old diary of our family's struggle with our firstborn's cancer (The Emily Updates), plus a few other irons in the fire, PLUS a growing advisory relationship with both CENTCOM and SOCOM . . . and I'm feeling ready to pass out simply in anticipation.
What a minute! That would be the allergies talking again. Time to hit the waves and wash off the pollen!
But the real reason why I'm glad I'm not rushing into "Son of PNM" is that I feel like there are plenty of follow-on analysts with their own analysis of PNM that are worthy, ready and engaging. In short, I myself am still learning how to read PNM for all that it's worth.
That may seem like an odd statement for an author to make, but it's been a common theme of my work throughout my career: I am always being told that I'm writing about so much more than I realize. Now, either that makes me a true visionary, or I've been sadly miscast in my own narrative (Don't you wish sometimes they got somebody more talented to play your role in the movie? You know, somebody who really "gets" the role better than you do?).
That reminds me of when my wife said that if they ever made an audio version of my book, we'd have to find somebody really good to read it. I said, "What about me?" And she replied, "I really don't think you could pull off the character."
I almost asked her about a potential porn film based on the book, but then I decided to let that one slide . . ..
Anyway, my foggy brain doesn't really have much to say today, so I've decided to turn today's blogging over to a trio of bloggers who've spent a lot of time and thought on PNM, extending the analysis further.
My short comments follow each post:
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