Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The hardest thing ...


Paris Hilton described her brief imprisoment as "the hardest thing I have ever done".

Wow. Now I hate to jump on the Hilton bandwagon with the rest of the media but when I read this line, I gave my head a shake. Then I felt like shaking her but, hey, I'm not (except on paper) a violent person he he.

I guess the reason I found myself a tad annoyed was that we aren't talking ten years of hard time here. It appears like more of a time-out. "You've been a naughty little rich girl and now you must sit in a small room and think about what you've done".

Paris is young and rich so I will cut her a little slack. After all, she hasn't experienced a lot of what would qualify as "hard" things in her life, right?

For example, she hasn't given birth. Without pain killers. Four times.

If she had, she might change her mind and say that prison was the 5th hardest thing she's ever done.

Probably what she needed in jail was something positive to focus on. I know that a lot of writers if locked away for weeks and allowed a computer or simply a pen and paper would write the days away.

But what if that wasn't possible. Let's just say they plopped me in a cell for a few weeks. Provided me meals that I didn't even have to shop for or wash dishes after. Gave me clothes I didn't have to buy, iron or wash. And they let me sleep without someone waking me in the middle of the night because of nightmares or at the crack of dawn to say they had a sore tummy and then vomiting next to me. Sheesh, it already sounds better than home but I digress. Let's say I couldn't write but the jailers were willing to provide me the simple tools to learn a new skill, what would I choose? Hmmm...

1) I'd listen to language tapes and learn Italian
2) I'd learn to crochet or knit. (Mom tried to teach me but I was too distracted.)
3) I'd re-read all the classics.

Come to think of it, a few weeks might not even be enough.

So how about you? Given a few weeks to yourself, what would you do if you couldn't write?

5 comments:

Anissa said...

I'd probably sleep for the first week. LOL! Then read. But wait, that feels like the flip side of the writing coin. Um...

I'd cross stitch. I have done that in years. All the while my little brain would be plotting, of course.

Great question. :)

Anissa said...

Oh, oh! I bet they let you exercise in there. I'd be all over it! Man, the possibilities...

Wendy Roberts said...

Cross stitch, that's a good one! My sister can do that but I've never had time to learn. And exercise! Yup, when I got out I'd be a lean, mean, writing machine instead of a lumpy, bumpy, soft writer ha ha ha.

B.E. Sanderson said...

A few weeks all to myself... Sleep would be nice. Reading all those books I don't have time for now. Exercise would probably be a good idea, but I probably wouldn't do it. Crocheting would be another thing I could do while I was in there.

But no matter what they said - even if they deprived me of the basic writing tools - I'd still be writing in my head.

Wendy Roberts said...

Yeah, sometimes it's hard to turn off the inner writer. I write in my head a lot. Especially at church (oops, did I say that out loud?!)