Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

The Good Life

I know many criticize Thomas Kinkade as a mass marketer of art, a sellout. I can't argue with that, I mean he even sells his works on QVC for god's sake. Yet, there is something about his work that calls to me, 'Come to my corner of the world.' His still works depicting forest cottages tucked into glens of pine and wild life beckon to a city boy.

One of his pieces entitled 'The Good Life' is just such a painting. It is of a small cabin built on a stream beneath a snow-capped mountain. It looks as if it is late fall and the chill is in the air as a lone man fishes from the stream for his breakfast. Although it is chilly outside, you can see the cabin is warm from the smoke coming out of the chimney. To many the scene is desolated and lonely but to me it looks like Shangri-La.

As a young lad, I loved to go camping with my dad and because it wasn't as often we would have liked only made it more enjoyable. We did camping as city folks did camping, that is with a campsite full of people. I had visions of being a mountain man, roughing it but in truth, it was a packaged deal, a retreat, not living off the land. At the time, I didn't realize it was just easier to go to a organized campgrounds than to rough it was the reason my father had picked these sites.

When I first saw Kinkade's 'The Good Life', I immediately saw it as a place I had longed for as a lad. How could life be any better than by yourself just taking what Mother Nature gives you? There's no need for TV up here and the Internet is for city boys, we have fish to catch. I knew I would love the life with nothing but my four legged friends to talk to all day.

Of course, now as a responsible adult I realize life in the mountains is not Shangri-La, it is a full time job. Whom did I think was going to cut all that firewood needed to keep that cabin warm? I guess I never thought about all those trout you caught for breakfast also needed cleaning. After a few weeks of hauling water from that stream for use inside I know understand, would become tedious. I don't even want to talk about no indoor plumbing, I mean what did that man do, dig a hole every time he wanted to go to the bathroom? Therefore, in the end I'll just have to say 'No thanks' and slowly back out of Mr. Kinkade's painting. Besides, I understand there is a new CSI coming on tonight and I'd hate to miss it.

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