or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love to Read…

  1. I enjoy reading more than writing
  2. No one gives a shit whether I write or not
  3. Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens
  4. I am large, but my multitudes are limited… professional success, for me, means a lot of time outside the job doing professionally-related things
  5. I was born to be a Jack-of-All-Trades
  6. Most tricks I know, most secrets I don’t. But one secret I know is: no tricks.
  7. There is no priority order for these “free time” activities that doesn’t put writing dead last:
    • Spending time with my active kids who seem to be a year older every day
    • Walking/exercising so I don’t get so fat that I keel over and die
    • Professional development so I can keep my job and avoid the homeless shelter
    • Taking care of my kids
    • Eating, excreting, sleeping
    • Volunteering in the Community
    • Writing
  8. I’m too Quietudinous to fit into the Avant Garde, too aware of my Retro nature to be happy in the School of Quietude
  9. I’m slothful, I’m burned out, or both
  10. I have nothing to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere and better
  11. What I have said has been roundly ignored
  12. I have to have understanding before I can hope to share it
  13. The Tao can be known, but not spoken
  14. If I had any talent or potential, it would be clear by now
  15. It’s not helping me, and certainly not helping anyone else
  16. I like having written more than writing
  17. I like being a writer, but it can’t define me