Indecision

I'm under a deadline. I have a column due tomorrow, although I might have an extension until next Tuesday. The problem is two-fold. One, the extension is more of an excuse to futz around because I'm at a conference four of the five days. I have bunches of other things to do before the conference. Time is ticking.

The other half of the problem is I can't decide what to write on. I might revisit an old topic - there are many of them. For several years, I wrote 16 a year - that's insane and I did stop. But, what I really want to write about is things that have happened this year that are related to 40 years ago. 1969 was an amazing year.

My other problem is I don't feel like I should be putting writing energy into a blog while the column is hanging over my head along with all my presidential duties for High Holy Days. That and I'm undecided about how to use this space. On the one hand, someone I love a lot tells me that it should be a rambling of my day. On the other, I read some reviews on Amazon of the various books associated with Julie & Julia [which I continue to want to call Julia and Julie, you can see where my heart lies. Who was alive and interesting 40 years ago? huh, huh?]

The Julie & Julia book reviews had comments on Julie's blog. One stuck with me - along the lines of the reader found most blogs boring recitals of boring people's days. Ouch! The exception was blogs with themes. In my ego, I think "well, I'm not a boring person, so...." But that's why I haven't posted the last couple of days. C'mon, do you all really want to hear me ramble about my exercise class, my housekeeper, going to the post office? I thought not. And theme? My column technically has a theme, diversity but the reality is, it's whatever points I might want to make through the diversity filter. Here, I want to be even more free-f0rm.

Back to the column deadline, I'm curious if any of you, especially those under forty, like the 1969, 40 years ago, idea. Subtopics likely to include reunion experiences, Facebook, Walter Cronkite (please don't say "who?") and Ted Kennedy. I'll work in something on lessons from the past. Yes, if you're forty or over (or even 50), I like to hear your opinions too. Meanwhile, I think I'll finally eat breakfast [oh shoot, it's 11am, see my lunch date canceled cause she's sick, so no hurry here.] And I leave you with the thought that both Nick and I have had while discussion this - as the clock ticks on and the cat flops on my desk, at least he's stopped blocking the screen]. Twenty years ago, Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play......

esther

ps, It is my intention to post my columns, after they are published in Connections, the newsletter for the Santa Clara Valley Section of the Society of Women Engineers

© 2009 Esther A. Heller