[Like most of the writing I manage to actually DO these days, this essay began as a quick comment I was posting to an article I’d just read online. In this case, it was an article in Psychology Today (.com): “The Value of Mind Wandering In Solving Difficult Problems” by Peter Gray. I really enjoyed reading it. You should read it, too. He’s smart and knows stuff.]
I recall reading somewhere that Agatha Christie did her best writing while washing the dishes. [In fact, I went so far as to offer Lady Agatha the unrestricted, exclusive use of my kitchen for her own folksy writing retreat. The bitch refused. And now I have all of these filthy dishes stacked up a mile high that I forced myself not to wash, under the misguided hope that I could lure her here with them, hand her a sponge, (a special, custom-made sponge that I had a local artisan carve into the shape of a Corona-Smith typewriter) and say to Agatha “To your work, m’lady!”]
