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"... 'Quite Correct!' he shrieked triumphantly. 'I am the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit.'
The Humbug dropped his needle and stared in disbelief while Milo and Tock began to back away slowly.
'Don't try to leave,' he ordered with a menacing sweep of his arm, 'for there's so very much to do, and you still have over eight hundred years to go on the first job.'
'But why do only unimportant things?' asked Milo, who suddenly remembered how much time he spent each day doing them.
'Think of all the trouble it saves,' the man explained, and his face looked as if he'd be grinning an evil grin--if he could grin at all. 'If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing, and if it weren't for that dreadful magic staff [your pencil], you'd never know how much time you were wasting.'
As he spoke, he tiptoed slowly toward them with his arms outstretched and continued to whisper in a soft, deceitful voice, 'Now do come and stay with me. We'll have so much fun together. There are things to fill and things to empty, things to take away and things to bring back, things to pick up and things to put down, and besides all that we have pencils to sharpen, holes to dig, nails to straighten, stamps to lick, and ever so much more. Why, if you stay here, you'll never have to think again--and with a bit of practice, you can become a monster of habit, too."
Norton Juster. The Phantom Tollbooth. 1961. Pgs. 212-214.
Thank you, Mr. Juster. It's like you predicted the internet.
Aside from Mr. Juster's amazingly prophetic passage, it occurred to me as I wrote my list of 'things I want to be sure to do,' that I set myself up with stuff like this ALL THE TIME. Is that why I get involved in internet groups? No matter HOW fun they are or how awesome the people in them are? Is this why I play in fandom? To keep from writing my own stories with my own characters? To keep from having to take some kind of responsibility for my time?
Is this a problem to be fixed, or a normal and (mostly) rational coping/socializing mechanism?
Mom used to say, "Moderation in everything." Since she said it A LOT, I'm assuming that the lesson wasn't any easier for her to master than it is for me.
The Humbug dropped his needle and stared in disbelief while Milo and Tock began to back away slowly.
'Don't try to leave,' he ordered with a menacing sweep of his arm, 'for there's so very much to do, and you still have over eight hundred years to go on the first job.'
'But why do only unimportant things?' asked Milo, who suddenly remembered how much time he spent each day doing them.
'Think of all the trouble it saves,' the man explained, and his face looked as if he'd be grinning an evil grin--if he could grin at all. 'If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing, and if it weren't for that dreadful magic staff [your pencil], you'd never know how much time you were wasting.'
As he spoke, he tiptoed slowly toward them with his arms outstretched and continued to whisper in a soft, deceitful voice, 'Now do come and stay with me. We'll have so much fun together. There are things to fill and things to empty, things to take away and things to bring back, things to pick up and things to put down, and besides all that we have pencils to sharpen, holes to dig, nails to straighten, stamps to lick, and ever so much more. Why, if you stay here, you'll never have to think again--and with a bit of practice, you can become a monster of habit, too."
Norton Juster. The Phantom Tollbooth. 1961. Pgs. 212-214.
Thank you, Mr. Juster. It's like you predicted the internet.
Aside from Mr. Juster's amazingly prophetic passage, it occurred to me as I wrote my list of 'things I want to be sure to do,' that I set myself up with stuff like this ALL THE TIME. Is that why I get involved in internet groups? No matter HOW fun they are or how awesome the people in them are? Is this why I play in fandom? To keep from writing my own stories with my own characters? To keep from having to take some kind of responsibility for my time?
Is this a problem to be fixed, or a normal and (mostly) rational coping/socializing mechanism?
Mom used to say, "Moderation in everything." Since she said it A LOT, I'm assuming that the lesson wasn't any easier for her to master than it is for me.
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