Part of this, I suspect, has to do with societal perceptions of sadness itself. It’s seen as a “negative” emotion—a state of mind meant to be avoided and eliminated as much as possible, by whatever means necessary.
I seem to be unwittingly developing a habit for having “working summers”.
Despite occasionally going on what could be considered conventional vacations, some even involving trips abroad, over the past few years, I’ve not found much relaxation during my summers.
We’ve all been there: the plan to read a little before bed keeps you up turning pages half the night.
You sink your social life for days or weeks in a row spending every free moment on successive volumes (or episodes) of a book (or TV) series.
I have a friend who gets so wrapped up in her reading, she does so while brushing her teeth.
They are probably right about that. I should know; over the years, I’ve rearranged my entire lifestyle to be as conducive to my writing as possible.
I’ve excised almost all extraneous disruptions, I schedule my days and weeks to within an inch of my life, and go to great efforts to minimize personal drama of the sort that annoys and hinders far more than it excites and inspires.
It’s hardly worth referencing a specific incident to support this statement. Just turn on your TV. Turn on the radio. Log on to any social media platform. Open your front door. You could spit and it would land on something awful taking place. The reasons why are too numerous to count.
The Eiffel Tower with its lights extinguished to honour those killed in the recent attacks
I was 17 years old at the time and on a trip to London with my father and his lady-friend to visit my uncle – my dad’s brother – and two cousins.
Just a quick note to all my blog readers and followers:
With the approach of better weather and the ever increasing hours of daylight, I’m making some changes to my personal weekly schedule, both in an attempt to boost my overall productivity and to leave my weekends as unstructured as possible for fun, sun, and adventure.
One such scheduling change is the day I post to this blog.
Rather than on Saturdays, I will now be posting to The Rules of Engagement on Mondays. This change will take effect this coming Monday, April 29 (i.e. I’ll be posting again this coming Monday), and will continue indefinitely unless and/or until I find that another day works better for me.
I want to thank everyone who has been reading and following me thus far. It makes it so much easier and more fun to write posts knowing there’s an audience out there reading them.
I hope you’ll all continue to join me as I carry on along my writing journey.
See you again on Monday!
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* SSDD = Same sh*t, different day: from Stephen King’s 2001 novel (and 2003 movie) Dreamcatcher.
In honour of the victims and the survivors and families of Newtown, Connecticut. My thoughts are with you.
A Frame Around Infinity 