Throw Away the Schedule

We sat eating pizza on this corner. Cutesy bistro seating and plenty of horns blaring. I loved this sign for the sheer orneriness of NYC drivers. So, Labor Day Weekend - I spent it in Texas accomplishing some errands, enjoying movies, lazing on the patio, and floating in the pool. I also reflected more on my time in New York - hence these photos as backdrop to some quotes from Annie Dillard's The Writing Life. (page 32)"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

"What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim."

"A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order - willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living."

"It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time."

"There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by." p. 33 Who would call a day spent reading a good day? But a life spent reading - that is a good life."

I have to say, I stood outside Harper Collins, and restrained myself from running into their lobby and begging to see an agent or editor. I didn't force my way in with bagels or donuts. I didn't drop off a box filled with manuscripts. Sigh. I behaved, took a picture, and resumed my day's schedule of strolling, dining, and humming show tunes.

It's a good life.