Life is still happening and it’s been impossible to get back to my normal blogging schedule, but I have peaked in at your blogs and Facebook accounts as I can. Thank you for many smiles, memorable poems, much cherished comments, useful information, and often inspired and inspiring stories. Kudos to all. This post is for you, my valued blogger friends. Many blessings. Jamie
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. Toni Morrison
OUR WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY IS OVER, but thanksgiving is something that dances on endlessly. It is no more bound to this holiday than love is to Valentine’s Day. I have much to be thankful for, not the least is writing, writers, and reading. Simple gifts, which are simply beautiful. The question arises: Why do we write? I would say we write to know ourselves and our world, to celebrate beauty, and to ferret out the shadow side. We use language to form poems and stories that help us live hugely. With their pens aflame, writers have much to say on these topics:
“I was once asked when I felt closest to God, and I surprised myself by saying, “When I’m writing.” I guess it’s because when I am really writing, I feel absorbed in a life that is much bigger than I am.” Katherine Patterson at the National Book Festival, 2011.
VITA SACVILLE-WEST, Lady Nicolson (1892-1962)
English author, poet, gardener
Hawthorne Prize, 1927, 1933
“It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.” Vita Sackville-West
Photo credits ~ Andre Aciman by Meenween, Public Domain, via Wikipedia; Philip Alexius de Lászió’s portrait of Vita Sacville-West in the U.S. public domain
ONE PIECE OF ADVICE a writer-friend offered me when I was young was: just glue your tukus to a chair and write. That’s all well and fine but some people – my own son is one – prefer to write standing up. I’ve been looking for a standing desk for him.
Standing to write appears to be good for our health. A recent news-story advised that when we stand instead of sitting at a desk we use more muscles because we have to stay balanced. Ostensibly, that makes it better for retaining muscle, burning calories and, one would assume, fighting inflammation. It probably mitigates the potential for back and shoulder pain. Last year the American Cancer Society came out with a study that linked “more time spent sitting to higher risk of death.”
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Rumsfeld’s standing desk looks bland. There are some that are actually quite lovely:
If just standing isn’t enough for you, there is the treadmill desk:
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I can image that there are actually motivations for using a standing desk other than health reasons:
Not feeling so trapped at your a desk
A sense of physical freedom that might foster a sense of mental freedom
Ease in using equipment (phone, fax, printer/copier)
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Canadian horror writer, Ian Rogers, provides a tour of his office:
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THIS WEEK’S QUOTABLE!
“The waste basket is the writer’s best friend.” Isaac Beshevis Singer
