A SHORT DELIBERATION ON BEING A CREATIVE PERSON AND THE RELATIVE UNIMPORTANCE OF THINGS
glossary: important, as in needs attention, could wait
…………… Important, as in needs attention now
…………… unimportant, as in never has and never will need attention
there are twenty-four hours in a day, at least a few of which are normally
spent sleeping therefore spent in a non-productive state and
some of which are spent in a non-productive state due to eating, both
of which could be classified as Important so therefore productive, and
the problem is the fact that time is limited, we will never have enough
of it and if you only have time to do the Important things, according
to your own personal classification system, notwithstanding exterior
pressures that cannot be ignored or there will undoubtedly be dire
consequences, the problem is, if you only do the Important things and
leave all the important “needs attention but could wait things” they
will pile up and drive you crazy and it’s not as if anyone else will do
them because they don’t really care about your personal classification
system or what you perceive as important because they don’t understand,
as in stop wasting your time and get on with what’s Important,
and if the truth be known what you perceive as important may not be
at all important, but if it’s on your list and doesn’t get done and things
pile up you will become stressed and miserable and overwhelmed and
ineffective and it’s not that easy to let something go if it’s on your to-do
list because you’re the one who put it there which means it’s important
according to your scale of importance, and it means you’re going to
spend time on it and it may be that it’s not important or Important and
it may even be unimportant and most people can agree somewhat on
what’s Important but the reality is the Important things seem to take
longer and longer to deal with as you get older and there’s less and
less time for the important things that are piling up and you will be
on overload if you can’t limit them and that’s when you have to have
a good talk with yourself which usually isn’t too effective because old
habits die hard and we all have our quirks and we need to be tolerant
of other people’s quirks and if they appear to be wasting time they
might be, but can’t help themselves and if you are a writer you can
write about your quirks and you can write about the distinct possibility
that some of the things you spend time on may be unimportant in
the grand scheme of things, and it’s impossible to explain what you
do anyway because any concept of time spent to achieve results is
completely irrelevant in any creative endeavour, and therefore could be
seen in some quarters as unimportant, so your only hope is to eat your
veggies and try to get enough sleep to keep yourself from becoming a
zombie and try to do everything, and write about it in such a moving
and effective manner as to make it Important
Author’s Bio
Janet Baker is a visual artist living in Mississauga, Ontario. In 2010, her first published poem was included in Walk Myself Home: an anthology to end violence against women. Her personal essay “Story” is included in the anthology How To Expect What You’re Not Expecting (TouchWood Editions, 2013).