A few weeks ago, just when the weather had turned colder, I caused an apparent animal death.
It all happened because I had closed my balcony doors. Really just two enormous panes of glass. And since I have a cleaning woman who comes by every couple of weeks, pretty clean, too.
Anyways, a few minutes after I closed these doors, a sparrow flew right into the glass.
The glass was fine. The sparrow was not.
It immediately fell to the balcony, twitched a few twitches, and then gave no more signs of life.
“Ah fuck,” I said to myself.
I hate dead animals.
My small amount of pity for the sparrow was overwhelmed by my immense repulsion at the thought of having to clean it off my balcony.
So instead of dealing with the situation, I sat back down and got back to work.
“Should I just shovel it off the balcony?” I kept thinking. “Or scoop it up and take it out to the trash?”
Eventually my phone’s timer rang. My work period was over.
So I get up to look at the hated sparrow corpse. And right at that moment, the sparrow popped back to life, shook its head a bit, and flew away.
I was immensely relieved. Almost as relieved as I am each time I have to write something, and rather than having to struggle and work at it, the words just pour out on their own. Here’s what I mean:
Usually when I have a writing task, I’ll do my research, think about ideas, and take a stab or two at the actual writing.
Sometimes it works. Other times, the task refuses to yield to my weak attacks.
No matter.
I’ve learned to simply switch focus to something else. And there’s always plenty of other work waiting for me.
Then, after some time has passed, I’ll come back to that initial, stubborn, even daunting writing problem.
It often does like the sparrow:
It shakes its head a bit and flies off. No problems any more. The words just seem to come on their own, and the once-difficult task solves itself in just a few minutes.
Of course, you can’t always take this approach, not if there’s an immediate deadline looming.
But if you have the luxury of a bit of extra time, then maybe try this “dead sparrow” tactic. Ignore the problem at hand for a while. And then come back and watch it vanish, without even leaving a stain on your balcony.
John Bejakovic