Freedom's Just Another Word...

with nothing else to lose", sang Janis in her usual husky style.

I was certainly not free at work yesterday when I came across this speech by David Foster Wallace about freedom. I had a mountain to move off my desk before I could leave for home so that a new mountain could appear overnight.

Nontheless we all pick and choose our moments so I decided to ignore the incoming emails and phone calls and questions and tasks and deadlines. For ten minutes I sat down and read what Mr Wallace had to say.

When I'd finished reading I went back to my mountain and worked steadily away until I couldn't anymore and left for the day.

Before and after those ten minutes, nothing changed in my space. If you looked into my world through a viewfinder you'd have seen everything was where it always was.

That's the way it is. That's the way we see each other.

So you wouldn't know unless I told you that the ten minutes I spent reading that speech were ten of the best minutes of my life.

I have had lots. But yesterday. They were ten good ones.

Thanks DFW. RIP.