The Burden of Our Memories

The Writing Mouse character carries his journals on his back wherever he goes. These are his memories.

Sometimes, things come together in Halfland as I watch. I have to keep paying attention to following the breadcrumbs in the story, which leads to a new connection of ideas. This is one of those instances.

I'd had the Writing Mouse character for many years. He had many handmade journals in which he would record all he observed in Halfland. I built him a complete library in his little chalet, where he could contemplate what he had written by the fire with a smoke of his pipe.

And when I'd misplaced a stack of these special journals, I had to remake a bunch. Then I found the missing stack of journals and was left with an abundance of them, something I wouldn't have set out to do.

Then it hit me: the Writing Mouse, symbolic of Memory, would indeed carry these recordings on his back.

 I tied them into three small bundles with twine made of pineapple fiber in a wonderful apple green. 

The detail in these is amazing; the top book on the right's tiny stud work on the spine is actual grains of sand!

Then the small bundles were tied jumbly-humbly onto the puppet's back, like a harness.

It finally completes the character for me. He's no longer just a mouse wearing glasses and a vest. Now, burdened with his recorded memories, he becomes far richer in concept. He becomes a proper storybook character, and that's what I hoped for most. This story development happened in real-time in front of you as you visited this blog.

Like all of us, he travels through adventures, observing, recording, and truly carrying all that we see.