And yes, we also eat to enjoy the company of others when sharing a meal, a spread, or even that little plate of cookies in the break room. We eat so we can experience the diversity of flavors and textures that are easily available at this time of year. We also eat for the pleasure that it provides. We don't eat only for the nutrition that fuels our daily efforts. The point that these scrooges seem to miss is that holiday food is meant to be ENJOYED. It is as if there is a war on actually enjoying the season's offerings. For every cookie or eggnog recipe in the newspapers there are twice that number of cautionary columns espousing the benefits of nutritional health. Reduce the calories, eliminate the sugars, and don't ever, ever overindulge is their mantra. Better for your health to eat a saltine than a sugar cookie, and certainly more wise to sip flavored waters than quaff that champagne they report. Better to have a teaspoon of hummus rather than that wonderful crab dip, they declare. This instinct is the result of thousands of years of evolution, of mastering nature, and of coping with the seasonal cruelties.Įating is as natural as breathing and yet the food nazi's caution us against feasting through the season. We toke up to survive the cold, to put on the layers of insulating flesh, and to store energy that will help us better survive the lack of forage as the snows accumulate and trap us in our dens. This is the solstice, the deep dark days of the year where every instinct cries for sugars and fats to better stave off the coming scarcity of winter. Even when I manage to successfully finish something I find myself asking whether it is good enough, knowing that often better is the enemy of "good enough" or if I am just procrastinating? Instead I find excuses to stop and work on something else (I have about twenty pieces at various stages now.) Often I will work on a new idea so I don''t have to work on something underway. Would that each story went smoothly through the above stages like clockwork. I call this latter, painstakingly slow bit the plodding stage. When my primary editing (first pass) is done I usually begin the real process of writing - drafting new material to enhance or improve the story, shifting things around a bit here and there, and, of course, editing the entire story once more so it will appear to have come from the same hand. My editing speed is somewhat slower mostly because I try to craft each sentence and paragraph into sensibility. Successive two hour sessions work sometimes, but not always and hardly ever at night. When a new idea comes to me I can draft at a fair rate, but usually tap out after two hours and have do ANYthing else. But still I hesitate over a piece and then hesitate some more. I've managed to overcome that last, but not my reaction when it happens. Yes, and there's the fear of rejection that no matter how many sales you have is ever in your mind. Some of it is pure laziness, a little worrying if a story is good enough, if it's as good as it can be, or just is a piece of crap not worth the price of a stamp or even the push of a button. I must admit to the affliction of procrastination. Excuses, excuses, excuses - anything that will put it off, whatever "it" happens to be. I mean, where's the harm of putting it off for another week or so? It's not like anyone is breathlessly awaiting my few words of dubious wisdom so why not do something else, something more pleasant than bitching about doing it,after all, the appointment isn't for two hours and it's only an hour's drive away or I'll start the dinner later, no sense letting the food cool or the deadline is still weeks away: I still have time. I've been meaning to write this for weeks, but the time never seemed right.
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