Lists to fight listlessness

When Lily and I were writing and traveling on trains, she told me that when she feels overwhelmed she forms lists instead of sentences. I think that is a good idea:

1. Make, don’t think; how can I get a cocoon?

2. “You’re missing it. All the beautiful girls are out. Come home.”

3. Warm Carolina rain and rain where we came from: fickle rain in Florida; punishing rain in New York; flooding rain to revive parched earth in The West; and in The Midwest, where the sun and the rain never come out at once. We are much of this country

4. Delicate drawings with micron pens and watery color; finding loopholes in my deficiencies; Oh My God, Shoes

5. “I am the blues.”

6. Abandoned spaces and how we will bring them all inside

7. Brunch with olives and eggs, toast and jam, cheese and potatoes; watching movies together on the couch; natural light; dancing the shag at a Boys and Girls’ Club benefit; homemade ice-cream; talking about music, listening to art…Is this what your friends said it was going to be like?

8. Smog, A River Ain’t Too Much to Love; wondering if I love you, or the South– silence, stability and ardor

9. Oh boy, Mrs. Litwack, you sure are pregnant

10. “Businessmen are serious. Movie producers are serious. [Artists are serious.] Everybody’s serious but me.” And, if you don’t get serious, do you eventually have to stop?