Revelation

Well, Friday afternoon again. This week I'm not quite so dull as last. Not that I'm sharp, mind you--just not so dull.

The revelation. My usual daily routine is to come into the office, turn on the computer, check my email and then get to work. Throughout all hours of the day, the little email alert sounds, and I stop what I'm doing to check and see what the incoming email is. I'm surprised I've taken this long--we're talking years--to realize what a disruption the email portion of this routine is.

This realization--my revelation--came yesterday morning. I had a handful of papers to grade and needed to have them finished by classtime at 9:45. I came into the office as usual but instead of sitting down and turning on the computer first, I sat down and began grading papers. I easily finished and felt as if I'd had some good teaching moments as I commented on my students' drafts. That's when I realized that I hadn't been interrupted--or hadn't interrupted myself--with attending to email.

Our revelations are just so much useless information unless we act on them in some way. So, in this small but significant instance, I've decided to try and avoid email--actually schedule it out of my life--except for specific times, probably and hour or two each afternoon. (If something is really pressing, folks are invited to call me. If I'm not too busy, I might even answer.) My hope is that this will allow me to focus in productive ways on my work--my writing, reading, grading, administrating, preparing for class and so on.

We'll see if this revelation brings with it reformation and rejuvenat--Hang on a sec . . .

[please wait]

[please wait]

[please w--]

Okay, I'm back. I just had to take care of an email that came in.

. . . reformation and rejuvenation.

The Dead Zone

Well. Friday afternoon. My brain is a dead zone after this rough week. Or maybe it's been a rough two or three weeks. I keep waiting for the dust raised by the beginning of the semester to settle, but this thing or that keeps stirring it up.

This morning I came to campus feeling fairly fresh and energized. I skipped going to the office in the Honors House, opting instead for the seclusion offered by my office in the English building. My thought was that I would be creative today, try to accomplish something. Anything.

But nothing happened. Necessary stuff kept pulling at my attention from the moment I walked in. The office was quiet, as I knew it would be, but I made the foolish mistake of opening the door and signing in to email and answering the telephone. Now it's suddenly 3:00 in the afternoon--Dead Zone Daylight Savings Time.

So, what to do? I think I'll sit and snooze over a novel for an hour or two and then join some colleagues at the Acoustic Coffeehouse for a beer or two. That ought to wrap up Friday in the Dead Zone quite nicely.

My best to you all!

Fire!

From today's Writer's Almanac:

Early in the morning of this day in 1666, a small fire broke out in a baker's shop on Puddling Lane in London. The flames soon spread, and within hours all of London was ablaze. When it was all over the Great Fire of London destroyed more than 80 percent of the city, including over thirteen thousand houses.

The diarist Samuel Pepys watched the fire from across the Thames River, after burying his wine and Parmesan cheese to keep them safe from the fire. He wrote about it in his diary.

After the fire was over, the architect Christopher Wren was hired to rebuild the more than eighty churches destroyed by the blaze, including St. Paul's Cathedral.


A more recent event on this day, an event inspired by a different kind of fire: this is my wife's and my 19th wedding anniversary.