It happens every year: the last day of the year. “No shit, Jessi.” You’re right: one property of a temporal construct is boundaries: the initial condition, the final condition. If your time is more than one-dimensional, you may have a larger set of boundary conditions. And congratulations on being a super-temporal entity.
But with the end of the year comes reflection on the year. And just as the New Year signals the beginning of ‘firsts’—first bagel of 2017, first sex of 2017, first day I didn’t follow through on one of my resolutions of 2017—the end of the year begins to trigger ‘lasts’. Last holiday gift for 2016; last paycheck of 2016; last book signing of 2016. It’s easy to identify firsts: one can call a ‘first’ immediately after it occurs. But lasts can’t be defined until that ball drops on Dec 31st, 2016. Will this cup of tea be the last tea of 2016? Will this massage be my last massage of 2016?
“Why are you obsessing over your last cup of tea or massage of the year?”
Because I’ve been obsessing about my last writing day. Like many people, I traveled for the winter holidays. Unlike many of you sagacious and prudent readers, I’m went north. Far. North. “I didn’t think that you liked snow.” I don’t. It’s absurd. And every day preceding our leave-date, I ask myself: is this the last writing day of 2016?
Since we moved and Cori created my in-house tea-room, I’ve become quite spoiled. I ‘go to Zen’ whenever I want. I have whatever tea suits my fancy. If I’m not feeling productive—because I’m sick, I’m tired, or it’s winter and I’m combating Seasonal Affective Disorder—then I don’t go to Zen. Sometimes, I sit and listen to my books’ soundtracks for a few minutes, and then my productivity soars. But as my anxiety about traveling rises while the countdown falls, my productivity has correlated to the latter instead of the former.
What is the last writing day of the year? It’s the last day when creative writing occurs. From here on out, I’ll be editing, creating Announcements, editing pictures or covers—but no more creative writing. “That’s not a big deal; you’ll get back to it when you return. Heck, since you’re only going to be gone a short while, you may actually get extra writing time in 2016!”
Thank you. That’s a good point. Anxiety about ‘lasts’ for the year is like all anxiety: it’s usually irrational, and never helpful.
And in discussing it with you, kind reader, I feel better about it.
MM04: “Happening To Me” is coming out this week, the first week of Jan 2017! And YMM02: “Steps of a Ghost” releases Feb 28th! Later this week: 'Top Game Experiences of 2016', a note about my 2017 resolutions, and a teaser for MMPR02 and DMCD01!
Have a great New Year!