Oh dear. I decided this morning to write an article for the local People’s Paper, the one that’s proud of the fact that it does not pay its writers. I do this now partially out of habit and partially because it’s a good way of publicizing the BLBP. Writerly motives have also recently surfaced. I will soon go back and reread what I’ve written, in order to shore up Shelf Life’s timeline and to fill in the blanks.

Rainbow and Jenna

No, I did not expect to write an article. But I woke up this morning (waking up is a misnomer because I don’t sleep) and I thought, I should encourage people to contribute funds to the BLBP. I also thought that I might refer to this article in writing Part III of Shelf Life. Thus, writing this would be like killing two birds with one stone in that I’d end up with an article for the People’s Paper and more fodder for Shelf Life.

The article, when I did write it, acquired a life of its own, and now is part history/part rationale for fundraising.

So, I did write an article and it took me two hours to come up with a draft. And as I progressed with my day I thought about making a major revisionary change, one in which I moved my conclusion to the beginning of my essay.

Usually, when such things come to mind, and when I have the time, I make the revisionary changes that come to mind. Usually. Tonight, I reread what I wrote this morning and did not see a need for making this particular revisionary change. But I did make other changes.

I do not now know if I am going to use any of the article that I wrote for the People’s Paper in Shelf Life. I have the history down, so this part is just a rehash. But I might focus more on the forementioned fundraising aspects of the project.

All this to say that at the day’s end that writing my daily dispatch had I fallen by the wayside. But this is it. Of course, I would not forego this.

It may be what has kept me from having a writer’s block. It could be that my subconscious has said, “Well, you are writing something so everything is okay for right now.”

And is everything okay? I am not sure. I’m never sure. No, I don’t think so. But the act of writing is problem solving in and of itself. I slip into the zone and work harder when a problem looms on the horizon. As my father once said, parallel lines intersect in infinity.

Next: 158. 6/10/25: Summer