On Writing and Laziness

Here's a post by Quinn Cummings about writing (not) which I enjoyed. Fellow blogger Robert Avrech is fond of saying that writing is rewriting. A prominent journalist when recently asked what it's like to write personal pieces in particular said, "It's murder." Red Smith described writing this way:“All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

I think and write a lot about writing and write and think a lot about thinking. This blog is going on four years. It's since given birth to a break away blog on parsha, which I have no idea how many people look at (Miriam - if you can put in one of those counter things I'd be quite grateful). I think often of a book or two or more. I also am thinking about a closed blog - closer to a diary, less of Samuel Clemens playing Mark Twain.
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I wonder about clever sayings. They say that ignorance is bliss. First, ignorance is ignorance. I think we should remember that. They say that less is more, but more was more first and that will always be the truth.

I wonder about things people say are true and then they say aren't and then they say are. Do you get a cold from keeping your coat open in the cold? Is it bad to put something in the fridge when it's really hot? Can you drink coke after taking aspirin?

Yesterday I wrote some things that I liked and then left them in a rented car. And so it goes. Writers and other empathic souls who sometimes misplace precious things will understand. I have to get to a building's doorman to get my stuff. Which reminds me of some basic Judaism books that I lent a friend 3 years ago that are sitting somewhere nearby yesterday's diary, behind a doorman's desk on the Upper West Side.

I am looking for where Robert Frost actually said that "the only way out is through." I can't find it, don't think it was in a poem. Uri? Meanwhile, I'm finding some gems. here's one (pun unintended):

;

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

~

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~

More on laziness: "By the fields of a lazy man, I passed and by the vineyard of a man without sense. And behold, thistles had grown all over it; nettles had covered its surface, and its stone fence had been torn down. And I, myself, saw; I applied my heart; I saw and learned a lesson." (Mishlei 24:30-31). Orchot Tzadikim cites this in Shaar haAtzlut and writes that lazy people run from medrash to menucha because they love menucha and therefore they view Torah and Mitzvot as difficult and burdensome. He delves into Shlomo's metaphor, noting that it's not a weak fence, but a stone fence that will fall away if one is lazy. He quotes the line we cited above (Mishlei 19:15) as well as many other lines from Shomo haMelech on this topic (6:9-11 O lazy one, how long will you lie [there]; when will you get up from your sleep? "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie.And your poverty shall come like a fast walker and your want as an armed man." 20:4 "Because of the winter, a lazy man does not plow; he will seek in harvest, and there will be nothing." 22:13 "The lazy man says, 'There is a lion outside; I will be murdered in the middle of the streets.'" 26:13 - 16 "The lazy man says, "There is a middle-sized lion on the road, a mature lion is between the streets." As a door turns on its hinge so does a lazy man on his bed. The lazy man buries his hand in the cauldron; it wearies him to bring it back to his mouth. A lazy man in his own eyes is wiser than seven men who give advice.")

On the other hand of laziness is this book that I was introduced to when I took an intensive training course under the Schools Attuned/All Kinds Of Minds program of Dr. Mel Levine. The book conveys the idea that what seems to be laziness is often not the case. It's called "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly Said The Sloth." This is something I feel very strongly about as one who wishes to nurture the souls of others and to care for my own soul, at my own pace.

It's long been a pet peeve of mine (wrote about it here, in a long, eclectic post that got some cherish-able feedback) when someone says something hurtful and then disavows responsibility by saying, "I'm just saying." The image comes to my mind is someone shooting someone through the heart, then they stand over the dying man bleeding to death on the ground and ask, "Why are you over reacting? I was just saying." An alternate version of this, "Not to be mean..." (as I talk about here) or as Kishke pointed out in a response to this post (which I appreciated the response to as I looked back and re-read) , people try to hit and run by saying that they're "just being honest."

While I was looking throuh Mishlei I came upon a mind blowing line (26:18-19): "Like one who wearies himself shooting firebrands, arrows, and death, so is a man who deceives his friend and says, "Am I not joking?" Paul Reiser can say "Baruch shekivanti." If Paul doesn't know what that means he can ask either of the twin sons of one of his best friends - two fine bnei Torah.