Yesterday, the lovely A and I were sitting in the coffee shop chatting while we should be working. This is pretty much a daily occurrence for us, and therefore isn't particularly notable (other than the fact that it is a practice I kind of love). But, as is often the case with our conversations, I left mulling over quite a few things. In particular, we have been talking about priorities a lot lately, especially when it comes to people. A's excellent advice: Don't make someone a priority who isn't willing to make you one. There are, she has wisely pointed out to me, times when you have to make someone a priority who isn't making you one right at that moment. We lead busy lives, and in a university town there is always school or work to get in the way and screw up our nicely established priorities. But you should be sure that the person would do the same for you, that when your life gets busy and you drop the ball when it comes to them, allowing them to slide down your priority list, they will keep you high on theirs until you can rebalance your life.
This is the kind of lesson it takes me a long time to learn, although I wish I was a better student.
I am a verbose person. I struggle with word counts and page limits. I've come to the realization as I've been writing my thesis proposal that part of the reason for this is that I write ridiculous numbers of explanatory notes. I'm constantly trying to clarify, to make things crystallize into a beautiful and clear diamond of meaning. Unfortunately, I usually just end up being wordy and therefore obscuring the point even more than if I hadn't tried to explain it. I'm in the home stretch with the proposal, but, surprise surprise, I'm over the page limit. Not by a lot. It's only four lines of text. Excising is always the hardest part of the editing process though. It requires you to be ruthless with your own work. And I find that it is harder the less I have to edit out. I can slash and hack, getting rid of whole paragraphs much more easily than I can carefully make tiny incisions to trim the text back one or two sentences. It's almost there. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
A little over a year ago I watched The Young Victoria for the first time and fell in love with the film. I just watched it again last night and couldn't help but be struck by the romance of letter-writing. Because Victoria and Albert were living in two different countries during what I suppose would be considered their courtship, and they lived well before the age of email, facebook, and texting, they kept up their correspondence through letters. The film does a beautiful job of capturing the anticipation and joy of letters. Waiting for the envelope containing news and greetings, running to check the mail, snatching ones with your name on the front in a familiar script...it's all just so delightful.
I adore getting and sending snail mail. I know that it is probably the least efficient means of communication in this day and age. I realize that by the time whoever I am writing to actually reading the letter it is probably old news. But regardless of this there is nothing like getting a letter or card in the mail. Knowing that the person took the time to sit down and craft a note, or a novel-length epistle, to you adds a whole new layer of meaning to a letter that simply doesn't exist with email or facebook. Writing a letter requires a prolonged consideration of the other person. You can fire off an email in less than half an hour, even if it's long, but a letter takes time. You have to select paper and pen. You have to carefully arrange and phrase your anecdotes and thoughts. And then, after you have taken the time to actually write the letter, you have to remember to take it with you and find a mail box and actually send it.
There really isn't anything like a good hand-written letter.
Dear Heart and Head,
If you two could agree on something, I would really appreciate it.
- B
I spent my afternoon holed up in Steeps writing away. It was actually an incredibly productive afternoon. I finished a scholarship application essay (which, in case you were wondering, are not fun to write) and got first drafts of a couple of other pieces finished. I'm staying fairly quiet about what these other pieces are for though, so if you are not one of the select few I have already explained this endeavour to then, I'm sorry, but you will just have to wait it out. If things pan out as I hope then I will enlighten all of you. Right now I don't want to jinx anything by getting my hopes up too much.Steeps is one of my favorite places in the city. Tasty tea, a great atmosphere, local art on the walls, open mic nights and showcases for local musicians...what more could you ask for? I find that I'm almost always productive there too, which is a big change from sitting in my room at home or in the dorm. Unfortunately it is a bit of a hike from either the house or the apartment (since it's about halfway between the two) and so I have to motivate myself to get down there. I never regret it when I do though. It's a great place for everything from hanging out with friends to paper writing to cram sessions. If you live in Edmonton and haven't yet checked out this gem then you definitely should. And you should tell me when you're going. I'll come. I'll even pay.This picture isn't from today. This was not the type of writing I was doing today. This stuff here is songwriting. Most people don't know that I write songs because I never ever share them with people (in fact, I think Lisa and Vicki may be the only two people I've ever intentionally played for), but I do. And when I write and the words don't conform to a melody I often turn them into a poem. Again, something I usually don't share. Anyway, that is why today was different. Today was essays and articles, so it didn't look like this. Wow, ramble much? I took this picture while I was in Toronto about a year and a half ago. I had a day to myself that I spent wandering around downtown Toronto and one of the stops I made was for lunch at The Rex. I had gone there the night before with Erin and one of her friends and absolutely adored it so I decided to hit it up for lunch the next day. Since I was out by myself I stopped at a stationary story and picked up a notebook and some pens so that I could spend some time writing. It was a rather enjoyable lunch stop actually.
