WRITERS WRITE....

Everyone’s heard the joke about pressing the button harder when the remote control won’t work. Everyone knows a sad irony of humanity is that when something isn’t working, we do it again but with more determination. It has even been said, quite rightly, that the definition of madness is to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result.


I was thinking about that point as I worked on an essay about the relationship between cumulative workplace stresses and post traumatic stress disorder for a friend. I was midparagraph when I thought – I mustn’t forget to go through [another friend]’s paper on obesity and jot the odd editorial comment as promised. It would mean I could put off the mountain of paperwork involved in arranging tertiary education for young adults in this country. I should also have been giving some attention to the three [snail mail] letters I needed to write at the end of last year, [before Dec 15^th, actually.] Plus, I have a number of arrangements with various social and medical support organizations that I really should be getting written up….

That’s when I decided to write this column.

Despite appearances, it isn’t about procrastination. It’s about writing.

Writers write. I’ve always written, but my dream dream, the really big one I’ve always had from the time I was four, was to be on the stage. I even did some amateur leads as a youngster. The trouble is I’m not much of a self-starter. I’m always doing things, nonstop in fact, but rarely ever because I wake up and say, “I’m going to do THIS today.” I’m more like the Buddhist pebble that doesn’t move, and yet is carried across the country by the water rushing around it. [Read more.]