Monday evening

Already today I've posted about Debbie's farewell letter.  Also, I took my reply, broke it into four pieces, and posted all those ... with a delay so that they appear one after another on subsequent days.  But I've also said that none of that should count as writing anything today, not in a "journal" sense, because it was all written days ago.  The thinking all happened back then; only the formatting happened today.

So where do I start?  I thought maybe this evening I would copy out of Ella Price's Journal the instructions that the main character is given on the first page.  Also, if I feel energetic enough, I might rummage through lists I've made in the past of things I intend to write some day and tally those up as well.  Not that I ever run out of things to say, God knows ... just out of the self-discipline, enthusiasm, or gumption to bother saying any of it.

Anyway, the book starts off as follows:

__________

Use a 6x8 notebook. Paste these instructions on the inside cover. Fill at least one page a day, every day. Date each entry and concentrate on one incident or idea that is important to you that day. Don't worry too much about grammar and spelling but about clarity and honesty. I'll cllect and check journals at least twice during the semester, and I'll grade solely on your persistence.

Suggestions for people who need priming:

1. Your honest reaction to something that happened in class.
2. Your reaction to something you read.
3. A quotation – copy it and comment on it.
4. A problem you are struggling with.
5. A new word. Copy a definition from a big dictionary. Try some sentences using the new word.
6. Description of an interesting sight or incident.
7. Suggestions for improving the college.
8. A summary of something you read.
9. A mistake or failure from which you learned something.
10. An idea you disagree with – tell why.
11. A question you can't or won't ask in class – leave room and I'll try to answer it.
12. A dream.
13. A favorite fantasy.
14. A description of a person.
15. An important experience.
16. When all else fails, a bit of your autobiography.

__________

Also, I've got a collection of little notebooks that I carry around with me to jot ideas in.  I may go for months without jotting anything at all, and then have a streak of several ideas in a day.  I started keeping these after reading an article by Peter Drucker about how executives should keep track of their own performance, watch where they do well and badly, and then follow up these realizations so that they can place themselves more often in the situations where they perform well.  My first entry was towards the end of October 2006, and filled several pages trying to evaluate myself at work.

The second entry is kind of interesting, especially in view of my remarks – was it yesterday? – about wanting to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.  It starts off as follows:

Drucker also talks about the importance of planning for the "second half" of your life, because an executive will probably be peaked out by 45. (How depressing!) But part of what he alludes to is the importance of starting the second career early – if someone hasn't started volunteering before he is 40, he probably won't do so after 65.

I trust the ages are a little approximate – after all, I'm not going to start a second career when I still have kids at home [Remember this was six years ago.] and I may not have peaked because I started comparatively late. But clearly it is still something I should be aware of. And equally clearly, if this "second career" is going to be something based in what I'm already doingI can tell what it is. Not, e.g., volunteering or anything related to schools or church or whatever – but writing ideas. This has one way or another been my sideline all along ....  

Then there's a multi-page mini-essay on the meaning of the word "liberalism", some speculations about Nietzsche and the New Testament, a lengthy discussion of some problems at work, and ... oh good heavens.  Here we are less than three weeks into the first of these little notebooks, and I've got a detailed account of one of Wife's violent rages, back when Son 1 was ten years old and Son 2 was eight.  Have you heard enough of these by now?  Or are you game for another?  It doesn't meet the criterion of new writing or new thinking, but I realize it's something I meant to post before this.  I'll write it up tonight ... in a new post (not stretching this one out) and then call it a night and go to bed.  I can pick up the thread of the rest of this later.