Wish you were here.

Interruption is the enemy of Productivity.
Most of us have heard that phrase and ruefully recognize it’s accuracy. I’m not going to rehearse the obvious or offer focus tips. In fact, I’d submit to you that interruption is often disguised as earnest discussion or debate. We want to grapple, unravel, various factors and consequences in whatever equation. Now don’t misunderstand; I’m all for thinking before you act. Look before you leap. An unexamined life… and all that. It’s simply that at some point, impassioned discussions aren’t a substitute for traction.

And did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We’re just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.
– Pink Floyd. from “Wish you were Here”

Now I did my fair share of LSD, (and probably your share too) which is why Pink Floyd lyrics resonate with me. This post however is not a flashback – it was prompted by a pair of threads at deCompose. HERE and HERE.

Far from slagging Mike, I’ll state unequivocally his blog is articulate, perceptive, and a cyber-port in the storm of digital insanity that is the Internet. Read those posts if you’re new to the discussion. And any number of others there. It’s when you’re not new to the discussion that it starts to look tired and tedious.

Created in God’s image, human beings are called to create. (Big metaphysical thought that needs unpacking, right there.) Artists however, that includes writers, at some point need to step off the soap box, back out of the debate or lecture hall, and get back to work.

Face it, aside from the chronically stupid, most of us learn best by our mistakes, by doing, by climbing up that learning curve. I’m not saying there isn’t a time and place to engage in discussion and examine the process; I’m suggesting the lion’s share of our time, passion, labor, imagination/intellect is better spent on our work. That’s the only place we’ll work out the real answers.