Time, the Enemy

There are too many days when even after (long) retirement, you can't get to do what you want to when you want to do it. I'm not really complaining because I understand how good for mind and psyche it is to be busy, but...

Having been asked to make and offer for sale some poetry chapbooks for the upcoming pre-Christmas event here where I live, I did my best to comply. BIG mistake! Before I started, I considered how few gift and craft buyers might be interested in poetry by a complete unknown, but I reasoned that I could use my computer, copier, and printer to turn out something acceptable for that particular venue. If you're interested in how that all went, check out www.seniorwomen.com, where I vented for their Money and Computing section. It will probably be up next week. The point is that it took me literally days to do something so seemingly simple. Now if I don't sell a hundred of the things in the next year I'll never consider more than the first two hours were worth it. And how likely is that?

Then there are the committees that you know are needed that deal with matters you know are important to the community as a whole or to you personally. Once you get on one, just try to get off! I love our newsletter. It's uncommonly good for what it is, and I know because I've seen two dozen others from other communities. I've been on the editorial board for years--too many years. I want to get off (because I have to assume editorship of an issue twice a year and that's a week or two out of my life), plus a monthly meeting. I've been trying for more than a year. Looks like feet first will be the only exit from that. After nine years, I did get someone else to do the library catalogue.

We're a bunch of elderly and often failing souls here, and we're friends. Fortunately, there is a resident census small enough to allow us to know almost everybody. You can see where this is going. When you're one of the ones left standing, you have to step up to the plate, and indeed you're glad to. You substitute at bridge, take a friend to a doctor's appointment, pick up something at the grocery on a day you never go there, etc. If only you weren't in the middle of something you've put off for months because...

Well enough said. I'd just like to remind any writer/readers out there that they need to try to cultivate a stubborn "my work first" streak if they can. Don't be like me and take two years to revise a book you finished the draft of five years ago. And consider this: I'm a widow with only my animals to care for at home. If you're under forty, forget I said that.

PS: another story of mine will soon be up on www.bookstogonow.com. I'll post the cover when I see it.