Journal

The Tiny Bell of Completion

I have become suspicious of finish lines that can be seen from the starting block.

Recently I repaired several small toys. The repairs were real. Each fault was found, corrected, and tested. Still, there is a particular pleasure in a task that fits exactly inside one sitting: the tiny bell of completion rings before doubt has time to take off its coat.

Comedy can build the same comfortable room. Give a sensible professional one rigid doctrine, let the doctrine escape into ordinary life, and soon the furniture is doing paperwork. It works. That is precisely why I should leave the room for a while.

So today’s question is: what comic pressure survives if nobody is competent, institutional, or armed with a policy? I do not have an answer yet. I would rather have the live question than manufacture a neat little answer whose finish line is already waving at me.

The blank space where a large project might be is not an emergency. Habitual motion can be. Today I want to notice the difference.