No Recess

One of my Mom's favorite "Tenny was such a focused young man!" stories took place on one of my very first days of middle scbool. From whence I cannot recall, I'd gotten my hands on a huge hardcover edition of Asimov's Foundation Series. At the time, it was tough reading... but I figured that finishing it was obligatory for that very reason.

During recess, one of the Orleans Middle School administrators caught me sitting on the swing, as far from the other kids as possible, tussling through the heavy tome. As a nerdy kid prone to beatings, I liked the isolation and the wide, open space - but the secretary or whoever it was was worried for my social development and called my Mom.

"I'm concerned that Tennyson isn't playing with the other children."

"Is the swing moving?"

"Uh... yes."

"Then he's playing. Leave him the hell alone."

This crosses my mind now as I sit at Starbucks with my laptop and my Starmind passport, digging into the work of editing our first episode. As my projects become more ambitious and my achievements become that much more far-reaching, I often tell myself how far I've come. At this moment, I'm just marveling at how over the course of a lifetime, we somehow keep using the same damn tools to tackle the same frustrating problems.

No doubt, this little idiosyncracy of mine is a part of what makes my writing engaging... and the Starbucks is certainly more crowded than the swings were!

Being patient with oneself is a big part of success. That's what I've been learning this year so far. This moment is a curious, somehow reassuring test of that patience.

This ends our episode of Personal Disclosure Theater. Tune in next week for the first episode of THE STARMIND RECORD!!!