When Alice complained that they were not getting anywhere with
their constant running, the Queen said that in Wonderland it always
takes all the running you can do just to stay in the same place.
Most of us do struggle to keep up, and in my case it has to do with
paper. I get too many newspapers and magazines, including the
New York Sunday Times.
I spend as much time at the kitchen table throwing away papers
into a box as I do eating.
The solution is simple. I must stop getting some things, but which
ones? Also, I must conquer the backlog of many hundreds of pages
torn out for later. Well, this is later. If I don't
conquer this mountain, Mrs. Red Queen, I'll never get to the
quietly waiting pile of requests from all the charities. I've given
to over 100 of them, and mail from new ones keeps arriving, thanks
to the efficient computers that spread my information around, and
systematically churn out bulk mail. Between papers and charities,
I am cornered.
My spare time is gone, and I wonder how I ever held down a steady
job, or indeed paid any attention to my own family, who appeared
from somewhere, somehow. Is it fear of something, or instinct,
or just habit that makes me like this? And what do I mean by
just habit?
Maybe I should read
Alice
and
Through the Looking Glass
again, or consult the Red Queen myself. If I weren't so busy,
I'd get around to that.
Right now I'm off to bed, because I have so much to attend to
tomorrow.
