Last week I mentioned that decent writing skills helped me get through college. The ability to write and the desire to write have other benefits as well. For example, writing is an excellent deterrent to multitasking. When I am composing a paragraph for a blog or book chapter, I can be so focused on my choice of words that I even forget to sip my coffee.
If anything, attempts at multitasking while writing lead to mishaps. For example, I’ve left pots cooking on the stove at least a half dozen times while writing only twenty feet away. Charred hardboiled eggs are the first debacle to come to mind, but I’ve also boiled away oatmeal, rice, and homemade soup. The day before yesterday I almost ruined potatoes for potato salad.
The potatoes, however, were saved because I had to use the bathroom. In addition to an occasional forgetful mind, I also have an enlarged prostate – and because of the recent nationwide computer hack on the billing system of my supplemental health insurance company, I couldn’t get a refill on my prostate medicine. Without the medicine, I feel the urge to urinate about once an hour. I barely have time to get a complete thought down on paper before I have to get up from my writing table to use the bathroom. That morning, in passing through the kitchen on my way to the bathroom, I noticed the boiling pot at the exact moment the potatoes were at a perfect firmness for potato salad. I couldn’t have timed it better had I’d been paying attention.
No one reading this blog needs to remind me to set a timer for food on the stove or to turn the burner off as soon as eggs come to a boil or to just stay in the kitchen for the ten minutes it takes to cook a simple dish. I know what I am supposed to do. I just don’t always do it.
Yesterday I was able to pick up my prostate medicine. I also enjoyed a side of potato salad that probably could have used a little more mustard. Life is good, and all things are connected.
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