Procrastination: pros and cons. It’s all in what you’re putting off, isn’t it? We learned the fine art of procrastination in school, didn’t we. Our teach assigned us our term paper at the beginning of the semester or the quarter, and we put it off and put it off until it’s the last week of the semester, and we’re having to do all the research in five days, and pull an all-nighter to write the paper. Fortunately I was always a pretty good writer, so I managed to pull it off. It’s when No-Doz became our best friend, or maybe the chick down the hall had diet pills, which she shared. And I went to school in the Dark Ages BI Before Internet. I used the card catalog in our library like you use Google today. I wonder:those of you who are going to school, either high school or college/university, does your instructor accept Wikipedia as a source? If I were writing a paper today, I would peruse the Wikipedia entry to get some background on my topic, but wouldn’t cite Wikipedia directly.
Instead, I would note down Wikipedia’s sources, and request those books from the librarian. Ben Franklin wisely wrote in his Poor Richard’s Almanac, “Put off not until tomorrow what you can do today,” but how many of us follow that dictum? We always seem to think we have next week or even next month or next year. But one day there will be no next week, or next month or next year. One day we will run out of time and regret what we didn’t get done. As Larry the Cable Guy famously said, “Git ‘er done!” Whether we get too old and feeble, or we catch a deadly disease, or an asteroid crashes into our planet and creates the 7th great extinction event, our time will be up. So hug your kids, spend time with your kids’ other parent, if you are still with hir, or your new partner if you have gone on to someone else. Write that book. Trace your family tree. If Europe ever opens to us Yanks again, travel to Europe, travel to Latin America. Che Guevara did just that. He took a motorcycle journey around South America, and everywhere he went he saw how the people Lived. It was why he was so anti-United States. He saw firsthand how the CIA in collusion with their despotic governments enslaved the people and made them subsist in grinding poverty, all the while opposing every person whose heart was with the people, and would have them prosper in peaceful democracies.
But this blog is not about politics. It is about our own mortality, and how we spend the time we have left to us. I was reminded of my own mortality today, as I struggled to reach the testing site for Covid-19. All my symptoms except one were consistent with seasonal nasal allergies. The one that wasn’t consistent with these, and might be a danger sign was my occasional shivers. No one took my temperature, but I doubt I have a fever. Testing was the easy part. 3 swabs and I’m done. Then I had to be escorted back to the hospital, and take several rest stops on the way to catch my breath. The lady “(she worked security) who escorted me there to the testing site, told me she figured we’re all going to catch the virus eventually.
Here’s where the pros aspect procrastination comes in. I said, “I’m going to procrastinate that as long as possible. As a writer, I’m good at procrastination.” She gave a little laugh and guided me to the place where I saw “Station D.” Death is another thing I’m procrastinating. If I’m lucky and eat right, I might be able to put it off until I’m 103. That’s 30 years. Olvia deHaviland of Gone with the Wind fame has managed to put it off until 104, she might make it to 105 or 106. Put off death as long as you can, but don’t put off your dreams and worthy ambitions.
Rita
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