Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Bento Box Life

I've been trying to think of an easier way to get everything done that I want to get done. I swear when I hear people talking about needing to balance out their home and work lives, I just groan. It's such a cliche and I'm not going there.

What I'm talking about is not balance. It's about accomplishing something. Yeah, you know, reaching your goals, getting something done. I know people are all over the place on this--some love to get their stuff done and it's usually the minutiae of daily life. Paying bills, getting the oil changed, mowing your own grass and sometimes the grass for the old lady down the street. When they finish their chores they feel satisfied and feel that they have accomplished something.

I'm not in that camp. I dread having to tackle these small and meaningless tasks. They don't add anything at all to your quality of life. They exist like gnats that you swat at only when they get right in front of your face. But still, most of the time, you have to do them.

I think that if I try to segregate my life into manageable chunks, then I'll be able to accomplish something. I'm not talking about the minutiae. I'm talking about the big stuff. The visual that comes to mind when I think of segmentation is... well ants and stuff like that... but also a bento box.

I am going to try to manage my life by putting it in terms of a bento box. I have to figure out what is my sandwich? What is my juice? What's my carrots?

I'm scarily thinking that my sandwich is work-work. But I think it should be family. As I'm saying this my son is repeatedly asking for milk, and I'm kind of ignoring it. i guess I better go.

Monday, August 9, 2010

"There's no one way that a book becomes a book."

http://www.calvin.edu/news/2009-10/iowa-prize/
So sayeth Lew Klatt, latest recipient of the Iowa Prize - given to artists for an unpublished manuscript. I'm guessing that there are lots of ways that a book will not become a book though.