A couple of completely unrelated things found online…

Melissa Etheridge weighs in on the passing of Prop 8 in California.

I read this interview with artist Lisa Snellings-Clark when it first came out, but one part stuck in my head, and I have to share.

Lisa said: “Jane Frank gave me a great piece of advice once. She said, ‘Lisa, just because you can do anything doesn’t mean you can do everything.’ ”

Er, are you sure? Because I want to.

But no. Especially not if you want to be good at any of those things, and I do. I want to be good at all of them. Many times when I talk to my mother, I tell her what I’ve been up to lately, and she marvels at all things I’ve done. The list usually doesn’t come close to what I want or feel I need to accomplish, and my mother is a wee bit biased, but still. To get even that much done, something must give. I can’t do everything, but I can arrange to make time for the things I consider priorities: family, work, string, writing. I don’t watch television, and movies only infrequently (much to the dismay of Nick the pop culture junkie). I don’t have children. I have a cleaning lady come in weekly.

As someone else pointed out, we all have the same 24 hours a day: Da Vinci, Shakespeare, me. It’s all in what you do with them.

3 responses to “A couple of unrelated links”

  1. Laura Avatar

    Ooh, special thanks for the Lisa Snellings-Clark link!

    Why is it so hard to balance time? Last night, for example. I had time, but I was too tired to make a decision of what to do, so I did nothing.

    TONIGHT, however, I have a plan. With a plan, not everything in that plan will get done, but more gets done than with no plan, even if it is just productive procrastination–“I feel like doing something but I refuse to follow the plan so I will do something else.”

    As I think I mentioned before when we discussed something along these lines, I was told, “You CAN do everything–just not all at once.” The circuitous flow of inspiration still makes me uneasy, as if just because I used to do something but don’t want to do it right now because I’d rather do something else means I’m failing or something. Reminder to self: it’s just doing a different part of “everything.”

    Also, I bet Da Vinci and Shakespeare didn’t cook and clean and do laundry and grocery shopping and read grant proposals.

  2. Phiala Avatar
    Phiala

    It’s a perennial problem. What I really need is a patron.

    Lisa Snellings-Clark is interesting, no? I may need a poppet for my office.

  3. Laura Avatar

    A patron. If you find a source, please do inform me. I would be particularly interested in a patron who would subsidize a larger space for me, and perhaps also meals. :)

    Lisa Snellings-Clark is way cool. I, too, was thinking I might need a poppet.

Welcome!

I’ve been doing stuff with string for quite some time, and describing it to others online since 1996 or so at Phiala’s String Page.

I also do some science and write some fiction.

I’m Phiala most places on the internet.