Life is like a mystery novel...
Mysteries... the fun ones... where they lead your mind on a merry chase that you enjoy.
Recently I asked our librarians for suggestions about mysteries based in the twin cities - where I grew up. It’s kind of fun to recognize the background settings in my mind.
Remember this?
These stories include some by John Sandford and Christopher Valen. Valen actually featured a horse farm near Cannon Falls in one of his homicide detective novels. And when we first met a few years after its publication, we were both surprised to discover it was our farm he had fictionalized! He had scoped it out on the internet and he needed a place for some fiendish activities to take place.
When one of our local law enforcement friends found out - he grimmaced and said to me, now we’ll probably have to come out and bring a shovel!
Clues...
Anyway... the librarians directed me to some mysteries by Julie Kramer - a former TV newsperson from the “cities”.
Now keep in mind that I have read many mysteries.
So... as I started reading the first one in her series - it seemed a little familiar. But since I didn’t recognize who the killer was I figured I had just read too many books.
Or... I prided myself on the idea that maybe I was just becoming a better “detective” because I recognized a clue right away.
Not so smart!
But it was when I started reading her second book in the series that I realized I wasn’t so smart! This time I remembered who the killer was. Actually, I was partially right and read the whole book to see what else I remembered!
This experience got me to thinking.
In reading the book the second time I noticed more signals given by the author as she took me down the twisty winding trails of her mystery novel.
Then I thought how much this relates to living your own life.
And the benefit of knowing what “clue” could help you and hopefully learn from it.
See the clues...
Some older folks may more easily recognize the mistakes or clues because they’ve made them too! In fact, they’ve "lived" it.
It’s comforting to realize that when you see someone else has done the same dumb thing you’re complaining about, you can find comfort because you see they survived that struggle too. And hopefully they are wiser now.
I’m reading the third book in Kramer's series now. So I was alert when I recognized another clue... and I almost yelled out: "... don’t touch the gun... it will be used in a murder and it will have your fingerprints on it... ackkkkk!"
I was so sure of this that I flipped to the end of the book to see what happened! I read a short excerpt and realized that I really hadn’t read this one! But I had caught the clue!
So maybe I really am getting better at recognizing these signals!
And I’m thinking that it also might be smart to share your thoughts with some “elder folks”! They might recognize the “clues” that can warn you of problems in your life’s story - your mystery!
Because they've "read" that part of the book before... they have “been there” - “done that”!
The end.
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