Happy Friday to you!
This is Jason Cannon with Ibis Books.
And I've been thinking a lot recently about "spending time."
Why?
Well, you may recall that my beloved partner Rebecca gifted me a new grill/smoker over the holidays. The pitmaster's mantra? Low'n'slow, low'n'slow.
And then last weekend she and I flew out to Phoenix with a couple friends to run a race. Rebecca crushed a half-marathon (seriously, she sped up as she went--her final two miles were her fastest!), and I ran my first full marathon!
Talk about spending time. Not just on the race itself, but on the training of body and especially mind in the weeks and months leading up to it.
Starting line! You may not be able to tell, but our friend Steve is a big-time Green Bay Packers fan. And yes, the first hour of the race was in the rain!
Hours passed. Time was spent. It was a rock'n'roll race, so there was live music every mile or so, and we passed jugglers and dancers and circus performers on stilts.
We even passed Barefoot Elvis, who apparently runs every rock'n'roll half-marathon to raise money for charity. Want proof? Here's proof!
Someone get Elvis a foot massage, stat!
Hours passed. Time was spent. Mile markers crawled by. Pain was real. Mind was tested.
When that mile 26 marker appeared, and the last turn came up--jam-packed with a cheering crowd, and hearing my beloved Rebecca hollering my name--despite the throbbing of every muscle in my legs, it was impossible NOT to sprint that last tenth of a mile!
And finished! Barely able to walk. To the point we took an honest-to-goodness rickshaw back to the parking lot.
Spending time.
A playwright colleague--a supremely funny fellow named Rich Orloff--once said in a workshop that the only two things a writer needs are a pencil...
...and time.
You better believe I totally stole that and use it in every playwriting and writing class I teach now!
But you can apply that idea to mastering whatever your THING is. Mastery is simply investment of time.
Things that matter--relationships, skills, good BBQ--all require that you spend time.
Writing a book. Editing a book. Publishing a book. Running a small business.
So maybe it's not that I'm just thinking about spending time, but rather about how to ensure that my time is well spent.
Tell you what, all that time spent training, and traveling, and running, and rickshawing... yeah. Good time/s. :)
One last plug for my two writing courses over at ACE (Adult and Community Enrichment). My fiction short story class starts Tuesday and has a growing waitlist, so if you want to pressure me into a second section, call or go online now! My micro-memoir class starting end of Feb has one slot left, so let the arm wrestling commence there, too.
And next week--ooooh it's so exciting!--I've got the next IBIS BOOKS title ready to reveal, and its cover to tease, and its launch date to slap on your calendars!
May your weekend be full of time well spent!
Jason "Do I Still Have Some Gatorade on my Chin?" Cannon
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