I have a friend of many years who has always kept and published (in various fanzine and publications) lists of favourite films, books, authors, etc etc. I have, up till now, been rather non-plussed about why. I have always been one for getting on with the next thing and the devil take the hindmost. Lately with a personal resurgence in my interest in writing and and a renewal of my impulse towards creating in the plastic arts i have come over all introspective. In my frequent insomniac moments I find myself thinking about the arts or personal issues, local politics, things to do and find myself making lists. They might be priorities or indeed lists of like and dislikes. As far as the latter are concerned i have decided I am doing this to try and specify or refine my tastes and preoccupations to try and find out who I am. They say that as you get older you mentally regress. Maybe I am returning to adolescence. At these times it seems important to find out who i am so i can work out what to do next. It is also a very important way, at the moment, to work out what is important in my emotional, intellectual and action life.
So i am embarking on a list making project. This is dedicated to Bruce G. All the lists are going to be ten items in length and will not be in any priority order except to say, that maybe, the very first ones will be the most obvious and the very last the most agonised over.
I wrote a note to myself about this in the car today while helping a friend move a piano and the example of a good list that first came to my minds was a list of things that I haven’t done. This is curious because I am always going on about living in the moment.
Anyway – here we go – mind the step.
I HAVEN’T –
• Tried hard enough with Patric and Taliesin to help them integrate with school, paid more attention to the preoccupations of their weird brains and helped them to be happier people.
• Been more patient with Max.
• Acted more in my own and my families best interests when allocating my time.
• Been systematic with my community preoccupations to ensure that projects were bought to completion more quickly and easily.
• Been disciplined in regards to my writing and actually finished a major writing project that wasn’t as script.
• Been patient about letting projects and ideas emerge and in my enthusiasm move forward to quickly, been dismissive of others ideas and left everyone behind.
• Worked out how to make and keep close friends.
• Been a better gardener and carpenter.
• Been a more systematic and adventurous reader.
• Fallen in love more often.
My first list. Part of my rules for this project are that once posted I can’t revise a list so I have to be careful. I however must post the list on the same day I write it!
Skullthorpe's Blog 