As I left the office late Friday evening, Oct. 16, for the start of a vacation, I had one goal for my nine days away from the desk. Since I had never even attempted such a feat, I was not at all sure I could succeed. But I was determined to try.
Well, it really was not a feat at all, because instead of being about what I did during my vacation, it was all about what I did not do. I vowed to go the entire week without writing one word, and except for a few checks that I had to write to keep the family solvent, I succeeded.
For many readers — maybe even most — going an entire week without writing would not be much of an accomplishment. I know people who seldom, if ever, write anything more complicated than a grocery list.
But I have spent nearly 40 years as a professional writer. I’m not sure how skilled I am as a writer, but my abilities have managed to pay the bills for all of my adult life. In fact, if it weren’t for writing and editing, I’m not at all sure how I could make a living.
My love of writing pre-dates my career in journalism. My mother still has notebooks of poems and stories I wrote while still in grade school, and somewhere in my home, there is a notebook of poetry I wrote while in high school and college. I have kept it mainly because it tells me what I was thinking during that particular time of my life. I have never kept a diary or a journal, but I have scribbled thoughts throughout my life. That’s not a journal, but close enough.
But sometimes even those of us who love to write need a break. In the days leading up to my vacation, I knew I needed to get as far away from my job as I possibly could. I knew I could get away physically, but escaping mentally is much more difficult.
Because of changes here at The Independent, I have been writing more in the past 18 months than I have since I was a cub reporter in Bowling Green in the early 1970s. This column represents just a tiny portion of my writing responsibilities each week. I also write editorials, type and edit In Your View letters, write news stories and features, rewrite handouts and do whatever else each of us on The Independent’s news staff has to do to put out a quality product seven days a week.
In the weeks prior to my vacation, I had written a number of editorials, verified and edited the In Your View letters, written a column and produced the Opinion Page each day. I had also attended and written about two public gatherings, did some interviews and written five or six news stories.
Fortunately, I’m a fast writer. When I am in a groove, the words come as quickly as I can type.
But just before the start of my vacation, I hit a wall. My creative juices had simply stopped flowing.
Since I typically am the only one who works on the Opinion Page, someone has to fill the void I create when I am not at work. Thus, I usually write ahead for use while I am gone. However, I lacked both the time and the energy to do that prior to this vacation. That’s why I missed writing a column for the Wednesday Independent last week for the first time in at least five years.
While I accompanied my wife to a conference she had in Louisville on Friday night and visited a dear friend in Henderson on Saturday night and Sunday, the rest of my vacation was spent in the Forest, as in Forest Avenue right here in Ashland.
I did a number of odd jobs around both our house and my daughter’s house, proving once again to my wife that she did not marry a handyman. I can turn the simplest job into an all-day project, and nothing is ever as easy as I think it will be. But despite my utter lack of skills, I did miraculously complete all the projects I had planned to do during the week, except mowing the grass at the neighborhood one final time before winter. My wife, who is a Master Gardener, said that grass should be left a bit long in the fall, and that’s all the convincing I needed to not do something I really didn’t feel like doing.
However, what I will remember most about this vacation is what I didn’t do. Although I wasted a lot of time playing games on the computer, I never wrote a single sentence. A dear friend had asked me to write a script for a skit at church — something else I do in my spare time — but I told her that my creative well had run dry and she would have to be patient. I’m going to give her the script at church tonight.
I returned to work Monday morning rested and more ready to do my job — including writing — than I had been in months.
No matter how much one loves to do something, we all need a break now and then. A week of being both physically and mentally away from The Independent was just what I needed. Once again, writing is fun for me, or if not that, it is at least not drudgery.
JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2649.
