For some weeks now, I have been working ten or more hours a day polishing three manuscripts to get them to publication standard; and I will tell you frankly, I have reached a state of exhaustion. In fact today, Monday, October 1, I am going to spend in recovery mode – because I seem to have abandoned normal life recently. By that I mean that I haven’t carried out my normal chores – except minimally – because I have been so focused on my three manuscripts. I have been alerted to my negligence by nearly running out of clean shirts; and I have a lot of shirts. Being down to one gets my attention.
“Madness!” you will say say, with considerable justification. “You have got to live a balanced life – and working seventy hours a week, particularly at your age, is insane.” I was 68 on May 23 2012, by the way, so I guess I’m in my sixty-ninth year. Should one slow down at such a stage in life? My general feeling is: Not until you have to.
I believe that writing both requires an extraordinary commitment – and rewards it. It is vastly satisfying; and such a phrase doesn’t come close to describing how I feel. Writing enriches, rewards, empowers, and satisfies to a greater degree than I could ever have imagined. I just feel much blessed that it is my vocation. Did I chose it? I prefer my good friend Vaughn Forrest’s phrase: “Work finds the man.”
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