Monday 7/1/24
Things can move very quickly from someone thinking they're getting away with something to "Oh God, what have I done?"
It's uncanny how so many people's LinkedIn page makes them sound like they're Da Vinci. I think they might not be.
These stories are now finished after much work beginning at two in the morning on Friday and on into Saturday: "If You Can't Be Honest," "A Thing for Cucumbers," "Bearded Dragon," "A Treat," and "The Bird."
This is a letter regarding the latter that went off to eleven people along with the file of the story:
So, here's "The Bird."
I think this is one of the best things I've ever seen. It took me more than two months to write. Someone might say, "How could something that simple take that long?" To which I'd reply, "It's not actually simple in the least."
What I wanted was something for every home, every life. Something people could take to their own hearts and pass on to those they keep in their hearts. Something a four-year-old could understand, and something the wise old man on the mountain who ponders the mysteries of life could spend his time pondering.
That's what this is to me, and that's why I put so much time and effort into it.
I wrote an op-ed this morning. Moved it. How long does it take me to write an op-ed? I probably shouldn't say. There are no edits. There are almost never any edits. Save at The Wall Street Journal. They would introduce errors--both in the writing and factual errors--into the piece that I always had to try to find a way to correct as discreetly as possible, or making it seem like it was my fault, so that I wouldn't be put down and/or loathed more for not being the incompetent one.
On Friday I walked five miles, did six circuits of stairs in the Monument, and 100 push-ups. 100 push-ups again on Saturday, Sunday, and today. Did five circuits in the Monument on Saturday and walked three miles, ran fifty circuits of stairs at the Connecticut gate on Sunday and walked five miles, walked three miles today and did seventy-five circuits outside the Monument.
I've been going through and revising a 5500 word piece on film director Leo McCarey and his 1937 picture, Make Way for Tomorrow. I need to write several horror-related nonfiction pieces and some Beatles things.
