I feel I must preface this confession. I’m pretty liberal. I believe in universal healthcare, choice, and all that stuff. That said, Donald Rumsfeld is responsible for one of my most used personal mantras.
Remember when there was a war, (that kinda is still going on but we’ve decided not to pay too much attention to all that) and Rumsfeld said “We go to war with the army we have, not with the army we want” and it was in response to American soldiers not having proper equipment? Remember that? I say that to myself all the time. It really helps me square my jaw and figure shit out.
I use it for everything! In the kitchen when I need 2 eggs and have only one. Me and my one egg army is all I have and I make do. Said it probably a billion times to myself during my installation, which was rife with technical difficulties. The phrase has a very pioneer spirit.
I’m also fond of something else he said that kind of got panned in the press, which was that the Iraq war was going to be a “long hard slog”. So when faced with a really difficult task I just take a deep breath and say: “This is going to be a long hard slog, and we go in with the army we have, not with the army we want.” Mental breakdown averted! Liberal shame sort of induced.
So I salute you sir! Thank you for your weirdly inspiring words. Too bad you’re still pretty much a war criminal.
I am firm believer in time wasting as a creative booster. Making art takes time to muddle. Often our best ideas seem to spring forth when doing nothing in particular such as showering, waiting for the train, noodling on the internets when you should be writing for that new grant already. Once inspiration hits then there is never enough time of course. One could argue that it was because you wasted all that time before but I believe this is just the nature of things and I try to embrace it. I find it easier to make focused decisions on tight deadlines and mild exhaustion anyways. It’s a delicate balance.
In an effort to see where my wasted time goes I have compiled this likely incomplete list of empty activities I do to waste time (ie free up my brain):
1. Read blog comments. Oh man this is totally a ridiculous thing to do. It’s a terrible, terrible habit that no one should ever pick up.
2. I love infomercials and have been known to watch QVC for extended periods of time. To be honest I find the language they use interesting in that it is strangely compelling yet containing no actual information.
3. Window-shopping. I love the mall. I find its sanitized environment and repetition to be strangely soothing. I very rarely buy as I find everything to be kind of hideous and poorly made but I like seeing it all laid out.
4. Read catalogues. Any catalogue. I have a window treatments catalogue on my desk right now. I am not remotely interested in window treatments but I will flip though it before recycling it.
5. Doing other crafty projects. Sometimes working on other silly creative things helps fuel the Art (with a capital A)
6. Celebrity gossip. I think my interest is reasonable. I also believe in participating in the culture. And if America is burning with interest in Brad/Angelina/Jen (although to be honest that whole debacle is really getting tedious already. Find some other non-existent love triangle already paparazzi!) I feel it is as important to know as Obama’s new justice pick.
7. Terrible television. Watching Mad Men is a great way to spend your time. Watching marathons of the Its Me or The Dog is not.
Morning Routine Confession: Every morning, after I have brushed my teeth, peed and obsessed over my hair, I weigh myself. For the past few years I have worked to keep my weight at the exact same number. It is My Number. I don’t remember specifically how I arrived at this precise number but I like it. I think I look best at this number. My doctor is happy with this number—it’s a healthy number for my height and frame. It is an interesting challenge to keep oneself at an exact weight at all times. I slip sometimes. Sometimes I am under, sometimes I am over. But I cannot tell you how pleased I am to have learned than none other than Mr. Rogers himself also had a number and it featured in his daily routine!
… Mister Rogers weighed 143 pounds because he has weighed 143 pounds as long as he has been Mister Rogers, because once upon a time, around thirty-one years ago, Mister Rogers stepped on a scale, and the scale told him that Mister Rogers weighs 143 pounds. No, not that he weighed 143 pounds, but that he weighs 143 pounds…. And so, every day, Mister Rogers refuses to do anything that would make his weight change–he neither drinks, nor smokes, nor eats flesh of any kind, nor goes to bed late at night, nor sleeps late in the morning, nor even watches television–and every morning, when he swims, he steps on a scale in his bathing suit and his bathing cap and his goggles, and the scale tells him he weighs 143 pounds. This has happened so many times that Mister Rogers has come to see that number as a gift, as a destiny fulfilled, because, as he says, “the number 143 means `I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say `love’ and three letters to say `you.’ One hundred and forty-three. `I love you.’ Isn’t that wonderful?”
taken from here.
