Sometimes when you must sequester yourself away for a full week, madly trying to complete a minor field exam, you realize that it is, after all, summer, and the sun, after all, is doing its part, and you do, after all, live in a really great neighborhood with a really great pool.And so, not to waste any time, you gather up all your books and notes and articles, and you go study at the pool.
Sometimes, when you're with a friend or you forget a pen, you don't get anything done. Other times, however, you receive brilliant flashes of inspiration and you madly jot down your ideas, then pop in the pool to cool down from all the hot madness in your brain and on your skin. Oh phew for cool water.
Still other times, as your week deadline draws near, you feel an ever-increasing sense of urgency to write write write. You stay home from social events and knock out a few more pages. You read and realize how much revision will be necessary. You start to panic as the clock ticks down and you understand that your brilliance is all mumbo jumbo. You take your draft to the gym and pedal away on the bike to try to pump things into shape. And then you get complete writer's block. You absolutely MUST go back to the pool to regroup and refresh.
And so you lug along your drafts and notes back to the pool. In a quiet moment of reflection, the breeze--oh so delightful--picks up--and carries with it your well-thought-out revisions. Right into the pool. Floating along so peacefully and yet so thoughtlessly. Thank goodness for sweet skills that save wet paper and can read through wrinkles.
And thank goodness for the flow of ideas that come every once in a while... just enough to breeze me through to answer these questions.
NOT me--I may be getting old, but I'm not FDR. You didn't think I'd really take a picture of my nerdy self with all my stash at the pool, did you?
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