use "this spot" as a holding ground for those goals ON HOLD.

I’ve got this idea for a small series of paintings, landscapes of urban winter scenes. One is a backyard seen through a chain link fence, early in the morning with that low, yellow sunlight over top of the blue snow. Another is a nighttime piece of a tree intersected by telephone wires and the hazy glare of a streetlight while a light snow is falling. I worked on a sketch of the first one tonight. I think it’ll be called “diamonds.” This is my winter project, I think.

I’ve been disatisfied with my list of 43 things because it seems that it’s like one of those soul-less mega stores that sell tires, and underwear and tomatoes and cds and books and greeting cards and… bits of everything, all under the same roof. It’s a grand mish-mash of things on very different orders of importance and committment.

So here’s a schema I’m thinking about:

Activities: tasks with a definite end (that is, you KNOW when you’ve accomplished them, like building something or going somewhere;) but the task is either part of an ongoing fascination (like “Knit a sweater for my wife” would just be the next step in my hobby of knitting) or relatively insignificant when it comes to ones core values. It seems that activities will be somewhat more significant than a daily to-do list (that is, “buy milk” won’t appear) but that there will be a fair amount of turn-over as the pieces of a larger projects are accomplished;

Actions: tasks with a definite end when their accomplishment will either substantially change ones state of being (getting married, falling in love-though I don’t know how you can plan that-or perhaps finishing a degree) or are related closely to ones core values (like maybe a pilgrimage to a significant site.) These are ones “life goals,” the acheivements that spring from deep in ones heart. There might only be a couple of these.

Duties: My notion here is a little less distinct but these tasks are ongoing and are directed to an obligation outside of oneself. I’m thinking perhaps of child-rearing, being a good spouse, care for an ailing family member, custody of a legacy, perhaps even a calling. There is something non-optional about this category, though of course I note that as one grows in committment to ones core values, they too begin to feel less “optional” as well. Another possibility is that, while pursuing duties, one may not experience much direct personal gratification. But by saying that I’m also wary because I know lots of folks who do things because they’re “supposed” to do them without reflecting on the status and legitimacy of that claim. Maybe calling some tasks “duties” might allow me to work through WHY I’m doing certain things;

Habits: ongoing tasks where the accomplishment is no longer the specific activity as much as the mental pattern of recurrently performing that activity. “Donate Blood Regularly” is a habit but “Donate a Gallon of Blood” is probably an action. How long does it take to establish a habit? I’ve heard that daily habits can be established in about 40 days of repetition. I have no idea about other kinds of habits.

Nothing too earthshaking there. Other folks have written about all this stuff before and there are lots of rough edges but I think some kind of structure might help me make 43things even more useful.

Digitize all of Henk’s story-telling tapes, index the sound files and distribute discs to participants.

Copper pipe trellis: cut the copper tubing; test fit the first section; sweat the joints; repeat on all sections until done.

Get someone to fix the roof at Mom’s cottage

Clean and clear in the back room for another solid day (maybe Labor day?)

Digitize all the out of print records.

Make my iTunes library resemble my actual musical interests more closely, by importing more of my cds and discarding or archiving all that weirdo stuff.

Make more “papercraft” models, including clear a workspace, get a GOOD xacto blade

Organize the Viewmaster Slides—get a bigger box, perhaps with some way to sort them, maybe even a database?

The family archives: figure out what to do with all the letters and photos; send some to folks; scan some into the computer; extract geneological info