DEADLINE!
I am writing this early in the morning of New Year’s Eve as 2022 draws to a close. It is often in the early mornings that I write best, with a cup of tea by my side before I have eaten breakfast. The mind seems freshest then as I get out of bed, slowly and sometimes reluctantly, but knowing that there are things to do before the sun comes up and the day proper begins. My to do list is next to me and the first item reads ‘Write and post blogs’.
So I start the day at the computer and will tick off the above item before the more mundane ones beneath it. I have a self-imposed deadline of the first day of the week for my blog post about tourist guiding (link) and the last day of the month for an essay on some subject of interest to me. I make good money from my continuing career in tourism and my house in London. Writing is just about break-even but it keeps my brain alive, if not my bank account.
In the past I made a little money from freelance writing and I still occasionally pitch an idea to an editor but writing is an overcrowded profession and I do not have the chutzpah to stand out from the crowd or the contacts to inveigle my way into writing jobs. So I write for pleasure and do not worry about the money I might make from publication – even though I am convinced that a lot of what I write is better than what I read (said he modestly).
Occasionally I idly dream that in future times there will be a profession of e-archaeology and, instead of looking for physical objects buried underground, future archaeologists will surf the web looking for undiscovered treasures and writers who are obscure and unknown today will enjoy fifteen minutes of fame in the future, when people realise that they had talent but not the contacts or chutzpah to get published in their own lifetimes.
Not that we will be around to enjoy it, even from heaven above. I have never been able to believe in an afterlife in which our disembodied souls survive, while our physical bodies have ceased to work. When you go, that is it. I do not deny the importance or power of religion but, if God exists, he does so as much as a concept as a being. Not that human beings are worse for inventing a creator. It seems to fill a need and should not be despised.
Apart from anything else, an afterlife might be a bit dull – being stuck in a place where we are not able to enjoy the physical things which are so important in our lives – a decent meal, a drink in the evening after a day’s work, sex (frankly) and a good night’s sleep among other things. Even just buying clothes, as I did today in the sales, or warming up after being stuck in the rain are pleasures denied in an afterlife which presumably does not have weather.
With only one life, it is important to make the most of it and deadlines and to do lists are one way I find of doing so. Once I no longer have a list of things to do, life will no longer be worth living and it will be time to stop. I may have more of my life behind me than in front but that stage has not been reached yet and so I will start ticking off items on the list as soon as I have uploaded this and written my other blog: diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com
Edwin Lerner
