Each day I...

He says that he is a theater lover. He says that he is an actor. He wants to work in theater and develop a relationship with those in the local theater community. Yet, he graduated from college three years ago with a degree in theater and moved back to DC immediately thereafter and hasn’t stepped foot in one audition and never volunteers for a theater or arts company. Typically, when he goes on tirades about his love for drama I acquiesce and listen to his streams of words that I believe to be empty. An actor acts, a writer writes, a painter paints, a chef cooks and a talker, he or she just talks.

Tonight I had the occasion to speak with Langston. He and I have been trading emails for the past few weeks so I decided to finally give him a call. Last week Langston finished his first year of his Ph.D. program and is now delighted that he has two weeks to himself before classes resume again. I asked him how he would spend his time between now and day one of the next round of classes and he said that he’d be catching up on some things at work and doing a bit of leisure reading. He rarely gets an opportunity to read whatever he wants during the semester. Although I thought that after reading piles of articles and books related to his coursework that he would only want to read for pleasure he informed me to the contrary. At the advice of one of his professors he is spending a bit of time each day reading materials related to his field of study. His astute professor asserts that a graduate student is married to his or her program, as anyone committed to doing or being anything is committed to their cause or craft. Thus, each day he or she spends time honing their craft, studying, learning, enhancing.

After I hung up the phone with Langston I began to think about what activities, if any do I do every day. I know that I spend my financial resources on things which I deem important or of value at the time and want, certainly I must also spend my time and exert energy on things, people and causes I think are significant. In the same token I should probably asses the fact that I probably spend both time and money on things that I shouldn’t – and that I should replace those things with things of greater value.

An actor acts, a writer writes, a painter paints, a chef cooks and a talker, he or she just talks. And each day I…