Each day I try to spend two hours writing. Often, this results in 110 minutes staring at my laptop and ten minutes writing, but it is still a goal. My mantra is the line delivered by Larry, played by Billy Crystal, in the 1987 classic Throw Momma from the Train: “A writer writes.”
One day recently, I was enduring the obligatory two hours staring at a blank screen. To facilitate the passing of time, I opened a folder of Word files which I call “Stories.” There I found twenty-one files: all partially completed stories -- some dating back to the 1980s.
In disgust, I began to read book titles from the two book shelves that fill almost an entire wall in my little office. Immediately my eyes landed on a volume entitled How Greek Philosophy Corrupted the Christian Concept of God. “That’s not my book,” I thought. “It belongs to so-and-so.”
Looking to another shelf, I saw Fifty Battle that Changed the World. “That’s not my book,” I thought. “It belongs to such and such.”
Then, to my dismay, I saw another borrowed book that graces my shelves: An Enemy Hath Done This. I’ve had that one since 1994.
Hoping to get my mind back on a story I am writing for my grandchildren, I walked into the kitchen and stared out the back window. My vision was immediately carried to my two muscadine vines. One was pruned completely, just waiting for the Spring warmth to fill the roots with vigorous activity. The other stood in disarray, 2010 growth mingled with the solid growth of previous years.
I returned to my computer and began to reflect on what the world might be like if everyone completed what they started and returned what they borrowed.
What an exciting world it would be if we all kept our word: to others, to ourselves, to God. Rationalization is the religion of modern man; but what if, just for one day, everyone assumed others expected us to keep our promises. “How early twentieth century,” you say?
This much I know: we cannot be in the least dishonest without hurting someone.
What if by some supernatural act, everything returned to its proper place? Wow! Just imagine all the saucepans, hammers, cups of sugar, power drills, quarters, and books crisscrossing the air around us! It would be fantastic pandemonium!
What if by that same supernatural act, every procrastination was completed? That paper that was due yesterday…that letter to Uncle Henry…that orchard which needs pruning! It staggers the mind!
But, it is said, if anyone is offended that we kept the book, failed to complete the job, or stepped on the edge of social rudeness, they should have said something.
True, life is so much easier for the inconsiderate when the offended are vocal, but one could just as surely say of a drowned man: he should have stopped breathing. Perhaps eventually the breathing will stop; perhaps eventually the mistreated will speak up; but in each situation the results will be undesirable.
I know I’ll still leave things undone…perhaps unreturned…but I, for one, will try a little harder to avoid it from now on.
Now, who borrowed my remote control?
The Boys and Me
