Sunday, February 21, 2010

Zen and mornings and work

So, I'm reading about Zen -- I don't know, don't ask, it's a thing. I have come to the conclusion, though, at least from what I've read, that this entire philosophy is basically antithetical to how I function. I mean, my world comes from that busy-mind place. Books, ideas, characters -- I need the constant inflow to support the outflow.

I was up and about this morning, doing my cleaning of the kitchen thing, and I was thinking about how the work I do is, in effect, endless. One load of dishes leads to another load of laundry leads to another dog walk leads to another book leads to another meal to cook. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Life is, in effect, one little thing after another after another and I embrace that. I think most of a woman's life is mired in that (I don't know about men's lives. I've rarely met one as busy as I am, so I can't say.)

It's funny, though. People don't want to know that, really, writing for a living is a lot like doing dishes. If you're lucky, you have someone to help do them so you don't have to get every load, or you eat out a lot, or you buy paper plates (or have someone buying you paper plates) so you only have to do dishes when the mood takes you. But mostly, if you're a working writer, you do dishes so that someone can get the sink dirty again.

Because everybody's got to eat. ;-)

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