Living with the List

In the spirit of futility and a striving after the wind, I bought a new planner for the new year. I was allowed to put any title on it for no extra money, so I did. It’s very beautiful (must more than the picture indicates). It invited me, in the very front, to make a “mind map,” whatever that is, so I carefully copied this:

Before him stood the Tree, his Tree, finished. If you could say that of a Tree that was alive, its leaves opening, its branches growing and bending in the wind that Niggle had so often felt or guess, and had so often failed to catch. He gazed at the Tree and slowly lifted his arms and opened them wide. “It’s a gift!” he said. He was referring to his art, and also to the result, but he was using the word quite literally.

So anyway, so as not to be hidebound, I decided to start using the book a week early. I’m allowed to write the days in myself, so that’s something. Let’s see, what have I got to do today? Not Blog, surely. Instead,

• I’ve gotta get some jewelry out of the sink that the cat deliberately dropped in.
• I’ve gotta cut hair because of course I do.
• I’ve gotta figure out a way to make angels look nice in some kind of veil or other face covering.
• I’ve gotta listen to the rest of Pilgrim’s Progress just so I don’t have to listen to it anymore. I do feel bad about this, I know I’m supposed to love Pilgrim’s Progress because it is an objectively good book, but Christian is kind of driving me nuts, as is Faithful and Truthful and all the rest of them. I mean, I am super big on the suffering of the Christian life being a real thing, but this guy with his burden (and seriously, this is just me driving across town over and over again and not paying close enough attention) seems as whiny as St. Augustine in his Confessions moaning on and on about his sin. Maybe I shouldn’t have veered off the path of Wodehouse who knows how to keep things light.
• I’ve gotta clean the whole house and that right quickly so that I can then do cooking and wrapping (presents not faces) and other kinds of important tasks, many of which have escaped my mind.
• I’ve gotta get rid of this headache. I decided to write it down on the list so that eventually I would have something to cross off. I mean, it is unlikely that I will have a headache all the way from now into the next week.
• Pray for some people. This one I can do when I’m trying to only slightly pay attention to the progress of the Pilgrim.

Well, that’s it! Have a nice day!