Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.
—Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle, philosopher, satirist, essayist. 1795 – 1881
While not aimed at writers exactly, this quote is germane to the writing process. The end of a story, novel, essay, or poem may seem something dim and in the distance, and while we have to be mindful of it, we need to focus clearly on next words before us and how they fit and carry forward our thoughts, ideas, and emotions, how they advance the story at hand as it lies clearly before us on the page.
For example, writing three pages a day, you can have the entire draft of a 547 page novel written in six months. If you take off weekends off, that is still approximately 328 pages, double-spaced. Not a long novel, but certainly a respectable amount.
Granted, that doesn’t take in all the preparation work you have to do beforehand or along the way. Or the rewriting afterwards. But it is a way of thinking of a long piece of writing as manageable steps and helping you to see more clearly what lies at hand, or at the edge of your fingertips and imagination.
Booker's Blog 
Life is like a box of … politicians
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/mar/13/wine-in-grocery-stores-bill-dies-by-1-vote-in/?partner=popular
Wine-in-grocery-stores bill dies by 1 vote in House committee
Why is it in my state, Tennessee, I can walk into a Super Wal-Mart and buy a rack of lamb and a box of bullets, but I can’t go in a buy a rack of lamb and box of wine?
Tennessee State flag
Somehow, according to the fine, upstanding, bought and paid for, public servants in Nashville, it’s my God-given right if I want to buy something to potentially blow somebody else away, but heaven forbid if I want to buy something in a Super Wal-Mart, or even a “regular” grocery story, that might be used to “blow” myself away for a little while.
This in a state with a super-Republican majority in both the state House and Senate. This in the face of the Republican manta of less government. This in the thrall of hypocrisy about competition being the life blood of a “free market.”
It’s only less government if you buy it.
It’s only less government for you if you can make somebody else pay with a little less choice.
It’s only less government if you are the one defining it as so.
It’s only a box of … GOP politicians.
Yep, less government. Just big enough to fit in your bedroom.
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Filed under Commentary, political humor, politics, satire
Tagged as commentary, GOP, political humor, politicians, rack of lamb, satire, state government, Tennessee, Wednesday