Fear of wide open diaries
Over the past few days, one of my companions on various planes, trains and trams has been Peter Stanford with his fascinating book ‘The Extra Mile’. I shall doubtless return to it, both in my mind and on this blog, many times over the coming weeks. Here is a juicy quote to whet your appetite:
Cities can be rather like particle accelerators –
they take people predisposed to be in a hurry and entice them to go even quicker.
I do not work in the city, but I know exactly the symptoms he describes. For the past seven years I have been accustomed to a busy diary. There is even a certain buzz to the plate-spinner’s art of adding things to it in order to extract the most from life. Occasionally we fall prey to the myth of our own indispensability and that just sends the plates spinning even faster. I am now fortunate enough to be on sabbatical, and everything looks different.
Today was my first unplanned day since this change of pace began last Wednesday, and for a diary-driven person I could feel a slight panic rising to the surface. There are so many things I want to do: jobs in the house, jobs in the garden, things to read, things to write, people to pray for, cycle training to do…oh and some pause for rest and reflection too! For a chronological agoraphobic, the prospect of an unplanned diary can seem a little scary at first.
In the end, I opted for a small amount of admin and an hour or so of combative gardening. I’m not sure how effective it was, but my companion (pictured below) seemed grateful for the prospect of new snacks it provided. He seemed to fix me with a particularly knowing expression between mouthfuls. Maybe, like the sparrows, he knows he is precious…or maybe he just recognizes a fellow busy addict when he sees one?
I would love to know – does anyone else out there recognize the symptoms of chronological agoraphobia, or am I alone?
