An Opening Line
All Books Start with That Perfect First Line
The best dreams, at least the more interesting ones, come after I’ve been up for a while. This morning provided me with an opening line for a book.
It was this: It was an interesting life. I lay there in a half-stupefied state, marveling at the promise of the line. It was a marvelous life. It was an interesting life. My life was entertaining.
Then, I must have gone back to sleep because I had a dream.
I’d been somewhere busy, with a lot of frenetic activity. I struggled to find a point in all the activity, and I was hard-pressed to do so. It was pointless.
I turned from this and found a part of a church, though I did not know it then to be a church — not until a nun came to me and got all excited. She and the other nuns had been busy, I suppose. They had small collections of trinkets, like party favors. Instead, they were to entertain and capture the attention of young women and, I suppose, men who might join them in their community.
Interestingly, as a young girl, I wanted to be a nun. I thought it would be a peace-filled life.
I grew up. And I didn’t end up doing that.
But this nun thought I was the one to lead them forward, this group of people who didn’t know…