Suspended Fingers

Research and writing are not what they were in the good old days when I was in graduate school. “Way back when” I’d search through the wooden library card catalog finger-scanning by author, title and subject, look through shelves for books to see if they really were the ones I wanted, or skim the periodical listings for dated magazine articles. We did have a limited form of low-tech networking beyond our own library through the inter-library loan service, as long as you had weeks to kill. Our advance forms of technology in those days were the archival microfilm and microfiche collections.

I still remember the frantic night when I’d been up for 36 hours rushing to finish my master’s thesis and I felt a sudden panic with a whole mess of pages cut and pasted or cut and scattered on the floor and wondering what on earth I had done. I crashed into a fitful sleep only to awaken realizing I had not, in fact, messed up the mess. I went over to the Methodist Student Center to type the final version on Billy Mack Patteson’s awesome IBM Selectric (with the changeable type balls). Later I finished up at Baylor University’s copy center to print off x number of copies for the professors.

Now all the above can be done on my computer from my office just off my bedroom. From my desk or my stuffed rocking chair, I search the internet to verify quotes, put library books on hold to be picked up later, order used books from a zillion book stores to be mailed directly to me via Amazon or held for me locally at Powell’s. I “cut” and “paste” and print x number of copies without my fingers ever leaving the keyboard of my laptop. I can even send copies just about anywhere in the world simply by clicking the “send” button on the screen.

But one thing has not changed. It takes discipline to write. Inspiration comes and goes. Some days it never even shows up. Only the will to write puts ideas into words, words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into articles and books.

I remember one of my professors saying that it is not necessarily the smartest or most gifted students who wind up with the “Dr.” in front of their names. But it is always the most persistent ones.

I don’t know how disciplined or persistent I am – probably a mixed bag like everyone else. (Watch me watch my grass grow when financial reports are due.) But I know this – unless you set a time to write and then stick to it, nothing gets written down. When it comes to writing, inspiration is found in suspended fingers.