Green Oasis

Lacey, my wife, is out of town with our girls this weekend. The first day that I was on my own I arrived home from work to discover that I had worn a black belt with brown shoes. The horror! One day on my own and things were already slipping down to hell. I hope she gets back before I forget how to use a fork and start flinging feces.

Lest anyone doubt my Mormon credentials, I present a photograph of some of my polygamous ancestors.

Unless I am mistaken, I am descended from the young, sturdy-looking wife who is standing in the back. Sometimes I think having a second (even) younger wife could be handy.

The Power of Myth changed how I viewed religion. Where I had thought religion was either true and good or false and bad, now I think religion can be consciously false and useful: now I see the transformative power of myth and symbol.

I’ve recently found a secret to getting myself to do stuff. The idea of cringe busting my to do list has made me aware of the sneaky feeling of panic that makes me want to procrastinate.

Not only does each item on my task list threaten to freak me out, the whole assemblage drives me to fiddle with addictive games and madness. I take one look at my task list and my eyes glaze over: I don’t know where to start.

The obvious strategy is to start at the top. You know that and I know that, but my gut reactions don’t. They tell me to head for the life rafts and abandon all hope. “The list is too long!”

I have a homebrew task management system (cobbled together using big ass text files, Bash scripting, and Vim). I recently programmed it to be able to give me exactly one task at a time.

The effect is magical.

My task list has lost its power to intimidate. “Sure, I have 15 minutes to create that spreadsheet. Easy-peasy!” I find myself ripping through my tasks so fast that I don’t know what to do with all the time left over.

Multitasking is a moral weakness. One task at a time. One. Task.

Even though the idea of an ethnic homeland has caused untold suffering, I connect with Matisyahu’s song Jerusalem. Jerusalem represents for me the promised land of human destiny, the ideal human community for which I hope. May I never forget that goal, or may my right hand forget what it’s supposed to do.