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Blogs by Shirley Ann Parker
Being lethargic or daydreaming? 9/3/2006 8:50:27 PM
When life's stresses become too heavy to bear, kicking back becomes a necessity.
Is there a difference between being lethargic and daydreaming? Personally, I think there really is. Feeling a little under the weather can lead to lethargy, that's for sure. You don't care much about anything, becoming apathetic or even depressed.
But when life's stresses become too heavy to bear, kicking back becomes a necessity. A little daydreaming about what was, what is, and what may yet be can relax a person physically and mentally, loosening both the ties that bind so tightly and the creative flow. If we don't spend all day doing it and are safely anchored in one place, daydreaming is healing. Please don't write and scold me for encouraging people to daydream when they should be looking out for their own safety and that of others. That's not what I mean at all!
When we think about what was, we realize how far we have come, and too often, it hasn't been in the direction we had hoped for, let alone planned. Here it is, Labor Day weekend 2006. What have I accomplished this year? A writer needs plans as well as dreams, action as well as thoughts.
Why haven't we accomplished as much as we wanted? It's because of all those maintenance chores of life that entwine us, leaving little room for musings. It's because of all those family responsibilities that let us know where our values should be centered. It's because of all those work conflicts that frustrate our creativity because our ideas are not wanted. (What's wanted is blind obedience to those who have ephemeral authority over us.)
It's because of living life, without which we would have nothing to write about, not even a fantasy or science fiction novel set in another time and universe.
My husband found a great sweatshirt for me the other day in a favorite catalog. It says "Careful. You may end up in my novel." Before I order that or a T-shirt, I have to decide where I'm going to wear it, that is, after our summer-long scorcher of a heatwave goes away. Do I want to play it safe? Do I want to make everyone I know extremely nervous, even threatening to sue me? The angel on one shoulder and the imp on the other are duking it out right now.
