Lofty Goals

Today it is my lofty goal to stay home all day. Some of the things I plan to do include the following:

• Cleaning up all the papers that have accumulated on my desk
• Lounging in the bathtub until the water gets cold
• Finishing The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence – at last
• Arriving at something that looks like a clean draft of the short story I’m working on
• Attempting to update my catalog of books
• Wasting time on YouTube and other addictive websites
• Et cetera

Here is a passage from Lawrence’s memoir.

So we…drew westward over the open ridges, until far enough from the wells to acquit raiding parties from the need to stumble on us in the dark. There Joyce [a British colleague] and I sat down and watched a sunset, which grew from grey to pink, and to red; and then to a crimson so intolerably deep that we held our breath in trepidation for some stroke of flame or thunder to break its dizzy stillness. The men, meanwhile, cut open tinned meats, boiled tea, and laid them out with biscuits on a blanket for our supper table. Afterwards there were more blankets, in which we slept lusciously.

This is how I would like my day: residing out of the range of danger, and complete with accomplishments, the majesty of a sunset, a meal, and a fine sleep. And also I would like the eloquence and poetry of Lawrence’s prose to follow me all the days of my life. Amen.