On Enjoying Work

Recall chapter 2 of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the scene when Tom cleverly hoodwinks the neighborhood children into doing his despised chore of whitewashing a 90-foot-long, 9-foot-high fence on a perfect Saturday morning. Tom might not have had the polish of an academic, but he surely knew something special about the human condition. As Twain concludes at the end of the chapter:

If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

I suppose this truth applies to all of us. The feeling that work is pleasurable makes it unlike the conventional attitude toward work. If we like what we do, we do not mind it at all. Do you find yourself drawn to tasks that others try to avoid? (For me, such a pleasurable job is mowing the lawn because I use that time to think freely.) When we find joy in our tasks, when we embrace them with the enthusiasm of a child at play, we discover that work is but a perception. The key lies in our ability to find delight in the process. We transcend the mundane and engage in the essence of play, turning every brushstroke into a celebration of life's endless possibilities.

Not Sure What to Write About?

Writer's block is the most intimidating experience a writer may encounter. You sit at your computer for your assigned time to craft an article with a strict deadline, or a white paper your CEO wants on her desk tomorrow morning, or even a long overdue message to your mother. You stare blankly into the void. You start to tap your feet. Your head begins to rock in unison with the blinking cursor. Not a word appears. Then come the judgments: You've lost your spark. The muse is hiding out on you. You just don't have what it takes. You convince yourself you can't be blamed because moments ago you put your rowdy, exhausting children to bed. Or those long work hours are taking their toll on you. Maybe you shouldn't have had that drink. That big meal is giving you heartburn. Damn that buzz from the refrigerator. You can't get out of your head that person who has nothing to do with what you're trying to write. Twenty minutes have passed. Nothing.

Luckily, writers have numerous tricks to break writer's block. Whether you're a novelist crafting a thousand-page saga, a technical writer composing specifications and instructions, or an administrative staffer responding to hundreds of emails daily, you can employ one or more of the dozen tips I listed in a 12-part series on this blog five years ago. The series, "Breaking Writer's Block," leads off with my number 1 suggestion, which I have turned to countless times with invariable success: read. Besides being an indispensable means of self-educating, reading can also inspire, triggering a writing urge.

And here's a thirteenth recommendation, courtesy of Natalie Proulx writing for the New York Times in an article "310 Prompts for Argumentative Writing." Proulx's point is that responding to the 310 questions posed in the article on topics ranging from sports and the arts to parenting and school can get students from middle school to college started on writing assignments. While you may think that the questions listed in the article are irrelevant to the writing you do, I ask you to think again. Many of those questions are relevant to all of us, and you can modify those that do not suit you. The key is this: Anything that can get your fingers moving as a writer is worth examining. 

On the Value of Writing Well

Will artificial intelligence (AI) eliminate the need to write well independently? I think not, and I'm glad that Frank Bruni, agrees with me in his op-ed piece "Our Semicolons, Ourselves" in the December 21, 2023 issue of The New York Times. Bruni makes the powerful point that crafting an excellent sentence, paragraph, and essay leads to deep sense of accomplishment for the writer and a powerful intellectual experience for the reader. 

I do believe that AI serves as a fine kickstart for generating ideas, a good tool for producing sentences quickly, and perhaps an indispensable resource for improving quality. But being in command as a writer—doing the work of researching topics, assessing content, taking notes, composing rough drafts, reviewing structure and style—helps students of any major and businesspeople of any profession. Bruni goes a long way toward proving this point in his essay.

Addressing People in Writing (Revised)

Question: How should I address in writing someone I do not know?

Answer: The concept of gender identity has eliminated the practice of writing Mr. Singh or Ms. Zheng. Below are your options.

1. If you know the person's given name and surname: Write Dear Suresh Singh or Dear Dawn Zheng. You can replace the formal Dear with the less formal Hello, Hi, Good day, or nothing, depending on your relationship with the reader.

2. If you know only the person's surname and job title: Write Director Singh or Vice-president Zheng, or whatever their title may be.

3. If you know only the person's given name and job title: Write Suresh or Dawn and drop the title.

4. If you do not know the person's name but know their job title: Write Director or Vice-president, or whatever their title may be.

5. If you do not know the person's name or job title: Find out. But if you can't, write Hello, Hi, Good day, Greetings, or whatever you think is acceptable to the reader.  

As Nobel laureate Bob Dylan sang, "The times they are a-changing"; be a person of your time by changing with it.

An Olympian Thought

I have watched as a big fan the past 15 quadrennial Summer Olympics, beginning with the 1964 Tokyo Games, and the current Paris Games will be no exception.

I was a high school track and field athlete for one year because of my interest in Jim Thorpe and Bob Mathias, two decathletes whose biographies were among the first books I'd ever read.  I also remember reading The Bobby Richardson Story and The Great Houdini: Magician Extraordinary when I was in elementary school, a time when reading required books was laborious and distasteful for me.

This point serves as an important reminder that young people can find many paths to becoming lifelong readers. Sports sparked my desire to read. For this reason, I do not criticize reading graphic novels or even comic books. Just encourage virtually any kind of reading.