I used to think the
idea of a calendar year was dumb. Too
much repetition. Why do I need to
celebrate the same exact things every year? Why do I need to experience winter
again? Why must I put up with the routinization
of life?
But now I realize
that with each new day we get a chance for a fresh start and that each calendar
year steadies us with a foundation that grounds us. Whereas I thought it was a chore to be a
slave to the holidays and annual rituals that fall our way, I now am more
embracing of the things that regulate our lives.
Just because a date
repeats itself, doesn’t mean it has to be predictable, but if it is, then it’s
because we find comfort in the obligation to ritualize our lives.
Life can sometimes
seem chaotic and random – or without rhyme or reason. The calendar gives us a sense of gravity, a
point of reference to remedy our challenged lives.
I look forward to
certain annual rites – New Year’s Eve, July 4, Halloween, Thanksgiving Day, my
birthday – as well as when spring comes, usually preceded by baseball’s spring
training. This year, baseball couldn’t
come soon enough. To read about my Mets
and I think they’ll get back to the World Series and win it this time – warms
my heart and makes me feel like the world’s in balance again.
I guess we can look
at time in a number of ways. We see it
in terms of units that can be measured and equivocated. When we hear amounts of time and put them in
context, it means something:
97 days until the
official start of summer
7 minutes until our
favorite T.V. show comes on.
15 minute until your
dinner reservation is honored
2 hours until your
plane lands
3 years until a
criminal is released from jail
6 months to live
after a medical diagnosis of cancer
7 months until the
baby arrives.
2 weeks until your
test results come back
30 seconds left in
the football game
Time repeats itself
regularly. We have 24-hour cycles of
life, 52 weeks in a year, and 1,440 minutes in a day. Time is precious and it’s up to each of us to
choose how to use it. For me, there’s
never enough time in the day – or year.
As a writer, time is my biggest challenge. How do I find time to write, edit, research
and re-write? How do I gain a fresh
perspective until some time comes to pass?
We, as humans, can
only, spend so much time writing. And if
we spend a lot of time writing, how much can be spent to learn, read, and
improve our skills? How much time can be
spent to dream, question, contemplate, and analyze – or to experience life in a
way that will better inform our writings?
Writes need to set
priorities for how they will spend their time – the quantity and quality of
it. One can be a great writer without
spending a lot of time writing. Time
itself is no guarantee of success for writers.
He or she has to be productive.
If one spent 365
hours a year writing, how much additional time would be needed for
editing? How much time was needed to
generate the ideas and information expressed in these writings? How much time is spent on reading and
researching?
It would seem that
for writers to collectively impact the world, they’d need to collaborate and
work together. For instance, if we got
dozens of great writers to come join forces and divide up how they’ll tackle a
single topic, we may get an amazing book.
Or, if we get novelists together and have them divide up a variety of
important topics and issues that they’ll each tackle – hopefully without
repetition – wouldn’t we get some amazing books where each one can give us
insights on different slices of life?
Time dictates what
writers write-and what readers read. A
huge, world gets shrunk into units of time.
How will you spend this precious commodity?
2016 Book Marketing & Book Publicity Toolkit
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