Shifting a Paradigm
My desk yelled at me this morning. It's annoying when your desk, one you consider your most silent partner, starts nagging you and won't let you get any work done.
"I'm wrong. Fix me."
Wrong? It's the same desk it has been for years. Little about it has changed, so why is it suddenly wrong? I looked it over, carefully examining the manuals and software CDs cluttering the shelves. They are just as they were. Why is that wrong?
"I'm wrong. I wasn't before, but I am now. Fix me."
What's that silly hunk of wood babbling about--Hold on! It hasn't changed. It hasn't changed!
I have.
I hate it when my desk knows more than I do, or at least is more attentive than I am. Nothing for it but a makeover. Now, instead of stacks of CD and software manuals, it's :The American Heritage Dictionary; The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate; Roget's Thesaurus; The Chicago Manual of Style; The AP Stylebook and Libel Manual; Strunk and White Elements of Style; The New Oxford Guide to Writing; Woe is I; Eats, Shoots & Leaves; and Lapsing into a Comma.
Now, it's a writer's desk. And it's quiet again.
"I'm wrong. Fix me."
Wrong? It's the same desk it has been for years. Little about it has changed, so why is it suddenly wrong? I looked it over, carefully examining the manuals and software CDs cluttering the shelves. They are just as they were. Why is that wrong?
"I'm wrong. I wasn't before, but I am now. Fix me."
What's that silly hunk of wood babbling about--Hold on! It hasn't changed. It hasn't changed!
I have.
I hate it when my desk knows more than I do, or at least is more attentive than I am. Nothing for it but a makeover. Now, instead of stacks of CD and software manuals, it's :The American Heritage Dictionary; The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate; Roget's Thesaurus; The Chicago Manual of Style; The AP Stylebook and Libel Manual; Strunk and White Elements of Style; The New Oxford Guide to Writing; Woe is I; Eats, Shoots & Leaves; and Lapsing into a Comma.
Now, it's a writer's desk. And it's quiet again.
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