A Handful of Universal Truths by faculties on Blogster

One compelling reason to get things done is this: you can enjoy yourself so much more when you don't have guilt nibbling at the edges of your conscience. You can really relax. Note that there is a parallel truth about food: you can really enjoy that trifle if you know you've already consumed your umpteen fruits & vegetables and have not spent the whole afternoon making inroads on a pie. (When I say 'trifle,' I mean this literally, since I'm in England -- I mean an alluring concoction of fruit, whipped cream, custard, and sherry -- well worth careful eating so you can enjoy a trifle.)

And here's a tidbit just in from today's Guardian:
'Learning from mistakes is clearly better than repeating them endlessly. It also frees you up to make bigger and better mistakes. Oddly enough, the bigger your mistake, the more likely you are to get away with it. Bringing someone an elephant rather than a mouse is less of a mistake and more of a conceptual revolution.' -- Guy Browning

So I think the goal of the moment is to go after the big game and hope for the conceptual revolution. At the very least, elephant-sized mistakes make for exciting memoirs. Of course the key, as I mentioned a while back, is to finish the project. Obviously you don't want to keep on hammering away at the tower of Babel once God has wagged his finger and dispersed people to the four winds to get you to stop. But no fair declaring the thing a mistake just because you wake up one day and say, 'I bet this is silly! I think I should probably become a professional hamster sexer instead!' I'm here to report that I've finished several projects since I last publicly vowed I would do so, and the resulting smugness and virtue is pretty gratifying.

And one last note: I was over at a friend's house for dinner last week, and she had the most scrumptious potato salad. It wasn't the mayonnaisy kind: much plainer, with fresh chives and a very light dressing. I won't say how many helpings I had, because it would violate Universal Truth No. 1. 'What's in this dressing?' I asked, keen to get home and make this every week. 'Balsamic vinegar,' she said. Which leads me to believe that it's all one great cosmic whole.