This morning while working in the blacksmithing studio, I had an idea. Seems as if I keep having trouble balancing work with iron with work with paper and paint. I get going with one and don't exactly forget about the other, but don't get to it. How to keep going with both?
My idea was dirt simple. I've already made a commitment to start in the blacksmithing studio first thing every morning. Why not add a commitment to do a certain amount of time with paper/paint/collage every day? Even half an hour could get me started.
Of course, knowing me, I then added a bunch of other stuff. Why not half an hour (or an hour, or 45 minutes) on:
- iron
- paper/paint/collage
- cartoons
- bodywork of some kind (weights, cardio, walk, stretching - something)
- art business (website, database, writing, something)
This is the kind of list that looks perfectly reasonable in the morning, but after supper looks ridiculous and overwhelming. Too many things. I enjoy life best when I can concentrate on one thing - get completely obsessed and passionate about it, forget about everything else. With two things, I can manage but get a little gripey. Three, and one of them really slips. Five? You've gotta be kidding!
I did it in high school. Hour long classes, five solids at a time. ("Solids" were "heavy," serious subjects like algebra, history, English, science, French.) Didn't really like it though. One thing I loved about college at the U of Chicago was that I could take just three courses at a time. I always found connections among the three. And I could concentrate on three in a way I never could in high school. But I never did equally well in all three; one always slipped a little.
So maybe my brilliant idea isn't so hot after all - for me. Not in the evening, anyway. Of course a later addition to this idea was to wait to open the computer till after I'd done something in each of the five areas. Maybe. It's beginning to sound as if I'm just wishing away my freedom again. Looking for rules.
9:23:00 PM 
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