A few people have e-mailed me recently and wondered where my posts from the politics department have all gone. There’s no shortage of things to be outraged about: the torture in Abu Ghraib, the daily barrage of lies coming out of the Bush administration about the war, the New York Times’s half-assed apology for helping Bush and the neocons mislead the country into war (way to let Judith Miller get off scott-free, Times. That’s some top-notch responsibility-taking you’ve got going there) . . . but here’s the deal: I’m actually getting paid to write some things now (more on that tomorrow), and I have editors and readers who expect things on time — that don’t totally suck — so I don’t have a lot of “extra” time right now. When I write about political issues, I like to heavily research and footnote my comments. My goal when I write about politics is not to simply rant and rave . . . it’s to hopefully enlighten, and inform people. Right now, I don’t have time to do that, but there are others on the Intarweb who are doing a fantastic job: Salon, DailyKos, Atrios, Josh Marshall, The Daily Howler, Juan Cole, and Kevin Drum are just a few of the sites I read at least once a day. I do a lot of nodding along in agreement when I read them, and they always say what I would say, with more eloquence and passion than I can currently muster.
It’s a strange thing, the concept and reality of “time.” There are so many things that I want to do in a day, and there really isn’t enough time to get it all done. As I get older, I find that my time is more and more valuable . . . and I have less and less of it. I’m still working up the D&D campaign for Ryan and Nolan, and I just joined a new campaign as a player . . . the first campaign I’ve played in since high school. I haven’t had time to sit down and play poker in ages, and I’m still reading the same book I started almost three weeks ago. Roger Waters was on to something, man.
So in consideration of this time thing, and how it ties into the lack of political writing, which is, I guess, what this entry has become all about: I can only write so much, and I can only write so much that’s not total crap. It takes more time energy to write a good political post than it does to write about something that truly brings me joy and makes me happy. And you know what? There’s enough anger and strife in the world right now. I’d rather put my time and energy into reflecting on the things that make me happy, than the things that piss me off.
When I put myself in lockdown to finish Just A Geek, I opened up this creative vein, and all kinds of stuff came flowing out. I wrote almost daily for Best Week Ever, put up a few things at the Cult of the One Eyed Cat, and contributed pretty frequently to blogging.la . . . but once I was done, I just . . . ran out of energy. My friend Kathleen described it as “red-lining” for weeks, which made a lot of sense to me. Since I finished, I feel like my creative engine was so heavily taxed for so long, it takes longer to get it started, and it’s harder to rev it up to a point where it churns out lots of good stuff.
Over the last week or so, I’ve started to feel creatively rested, and I think I’ll be able to write here more often . . . but more importantly, I’ll get back to more narrative work, like lying in odessa or some of my recent blogs about the kids.
I gave a talk to Nolan’s humanities class about two weeks ago (man, speaking to thirty 12 year-olds is harder than addressing a convention hall of thousands!) and I discussed how writing can take you places — emotionally, and physically — the same way reading a good book, or watching a good movie can.
For the time being, when I write, I’m going to visit some cool places . . . but now, I’m going to read my Expanded Psionics Handbook.