Blank Paper
Over the past week, I've spent some time cleaning out closets, desk drawers and my briefcase. I've culled hundreds of e-mails from various e-mail accounts. I've deleted dozens of document files from my computer. These are typical "year end" behaviors for me.
Along the way, I've rediscovered scores of pieces of paper -- "Post-it Notes", envelopes, ATM slips, paycheck stubs, napkins -- all bearing the marks of my hurriedly scribbled, sometimes illegible hand. Notes, quotes and random ideas. I'm guessing many of those ideas seemed pretty good to me at the moment. Then these artifacts of my scattered thinking drifted to the bottom of my briefcase, were tucked inside the pages of a half-read book, or stuffed in a coat pocket -- my own unconcious system of intellectual purgation I suppose.
Upon reconnecting with each of these "tidbits", I reread them. In most cases, judgment was swift and sure. Delivered from the purgatory of my briefcase, I summarily cast them into the Sheol of the recycle bin without so much as a second thought. The passage of time had worked its magic -- much of my supposed profundity exposed as barely pedestrian.
This habit of writing random things on scraps of paper has been a part of my life for so long I can't remember when or how I started. The yearly exercise of eradicating the evidence of my undisciplined thinking is a long-standing habit as well. I suspect that over the course of the past year, some of those notes and quotes made it into a sermon, newsletter article or blog post without my ever revisiting the original scrawl (because, of course, I couldn't find it!). I'm certain that the effort of the scribbling wasn't wasted effort, even if it didn't produce a groundbreaking theological tome or an essay worthy of publication. I accept this odd practice as my own way of distilling information and getting the information planted in my mind.
Now I'm ready to begin the exercise again. My briefcase empty. The desk drawers are (mostly) clean. A fresh stack of books beckon. I have plenty of blank paper on hand.
Happy New Year!
Over the past week, I've spent some time cleaning out closets, desk drawers and my briefcase. I've culled hundreds of e-mails from various e-mail accounts. I've deleted dozens of document files from my computer. These are typical "year end" behaviors for me.
Along the way, I've rediscovered scores of pieces of paper -- "Post-it Notes", envelopes, ATM slips, paycheck stubs, napkins -- all bearing the marks of my hurriedly scribbled, sometimes illegible hand. Notes, quotes and random ideas. I'm guessing many of those ideas seemed pretty good to me at the moment. Then these artifacts of my scattered thinking drifted to the bottom of my briefcase, were tucked inside the pages of a half-read book, or stuffed in a coat pocket -- my own unconcious system of intellectual purgation I suppose.
Upon reconnecting with each of these "tidbits", I reread them. In most cases, judgment was swift and sure. Delivered from the purgatory of my briefcase, I summarily cast them into the Sheol of the recycle bin without so much as a second thought. The passage of time had worked its magic -- much of my supposed profundity exposed as barely pedestrian.
This habit of writing random things on scraps of paper has been a part of my life for so long I can't remember when or how I started. The yearly exercise of eradicating the evidence of my undisciplined thinking is a long-standing habit as well. I suspect that over the course of the past year, some of those notes and quotes made it into a sermon, newsletter article or blog post without my ever revisiting the original scrawl (because, of course, I couldn't find it!). I'm certain that the effort of the scribbling wasn't wasted effort, even if it didn't produce a groundbreaking theological tome or an essay worthy of publication. I accept this odd practice as my own way of distilling information and getting the information planted in my mind.
Now I'm ready to begin the exercise again. My briefcase empty. The desk drawers are (mostly) clean. A fresh stack of books beckon. I have plenty of blank paper on hand.
Happy New Year!
posted by FrGaryB | 8:26 AM
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