Friday, January 19, 2007

Happy 65th Birthday Jan! part 2

I thought long and hard about what kind of gift I could give you that would be appropriate to this milestone birthday. I woke up this morning knowing I wanted to write you an essay and I decided the ideal thing to do would be to publish it to this blog, since the subject is so universal I thought you would not mind if I shared this with the world.

Over the years I have collected a few artifacts related to the subject of aging and the postcard reproduced below that I got from Vera and Leo a few years ago is right at the top of the list of objects that address the subject masterfully. So that is the first thing I share with you. Of course it is especially poignant now that Leo is gone.

Happy 65th Birthday Jan!

How much have you lost from procrastination?

One of the Editors at Judy's book asked this question and I had to respond!

Oh baby, thanks for asking a really juicy question. This is one I am addressing daily!

I could recommend a whole library of books I have read on this subject, putting 1/2 of 1 % of what I have learned into practice! That will give you a hint about my style of procrastination.

Let me just give you a quote from a lovely little flip book written by Ruth Hayes, called the "flip book of the DEAD." BTW, in case you're not familiar with the term, a flip book is a primitive form of animation, where you flip the page ends to view a changing scene. I'm sure you've seen them:

"O procrastinating one, who thinketh not
of the coming of death,
Devoting thyself to the useless doings of this life,
Improvident art thou in dissipating
thy great opportunity;
Mistaken, indeed, will thy purpose be now
if thou returnest emptyhanded from this life. . .
Wilt thou not be acting even as a traitor to thyself?"