Moment of clarity

Many days I have a moment of clarity right as I am finishing breakfast and am somewhere into my second cup of coffee. I am reading something and have particularly deep insight and I can see a short essay flow out of the thought.

Then I keep reading. On good days everything I read holds my interest, on bad days it's hard to concentrate because I am thinking about all the things I need to do later. But on all days the beautiful continuity of thought I had earlier is lost.

My friend Blue -- who used to read the blog frequently and also used to be a prolific and interesting Facebook poster, someone who really bucked the drift towards narrow topicality and/or lifestyle porn -- once said something like it's important to stop reading lest it interfere with our writing, and I totally get that. I think I may even have blogged about it before.

But it's not all about the writing. Really it's about being in the world. Today is Valentine's Day and I totally didn't pick up a heart-shaped treat or any special chocolate for Mary. I have promised her a very special backrub, but really I should also look for an opportunity to do something out of the ordinary for her, Like for example help her think through framing those couple of pictures for which the frames have been sitting on our island for a week or two. Or cleaning crap out of the cubbies in our mudroom. She has, after all, unintentionally (perhaps) given me a Valentine's Day treat already by clearing off the huge mound of shit on top of her chest of drawers which drives me crazy, though I know better than to say anything about it, except for on the very bluest moon. Pursuant to all this, I had better stop typing.