When inspiration finally strikes

Posted on | June 21, 2005 |

Today was the first day in a long time that I can remember writing until it got dark. No lunch break, no leaving the house (well, except to hang out washing), no watching the clock (apart from that wonderfully incidental kind of way, as in ‘Wow, I’ve been sitting here a whole ‘nother hour and hadn’t even noticed’). I finished writing something today that I couldn’t for the life of me get done before this very moment. It’s not a particularly challenging topic, it’s quite an appealing invitation to respond to, and I’ve been thinking about it for about six months. But something hasn’t been right with me. For some reason lately I haven’t been able to summon that deep and total immersion in writing that is actually the basic source of all my confidence, my drive. Where has it been? And what brought it back?

Was it seeing Judith Butler publicly mourn for Susan Sontag in her beautifully acerbic public lecture on Saturday? Was it watching Wendy Brown joke to a philosophy conference about how proud she was to have them all talking about capitalism? Was it the excitement of hearing about Michelle Boulous Walker’s project which mines de Beauvoir for an ethics of reading - and knowing she works at UQ? Was it the random kindness of the girl at the bus-stop who let me share her pastry as we chatted and walked to the morning session - and knowing she too lives in Brisbane? Or was it hearing from my Aunty that her heart operation went well and she’s now out of hospital being waited on by my cousins? Or that my Dad has sold the block and we can now seriously start looking for a house that might make me a home? Or, more likely, was it coming home to someone who will fall to their knees for me in the middle of warm-up hugs in the kitchen?

Category: Randoms, Research, Travel

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