So Far S.E.W. Good?

A very wise lady, the kind of woman who you always wanted to know her secret because even when things
weren't going swimmingly, she always seemed very deeply okay, once suggested that the recipe for happiness consists of daily doses of sex, exercise and writing, and that one should wake up each morning with the goal of spending one hour engaging in each of these activities. I call it the S.E.W. Good System. It's deceptively simple, easier said than done, but when carefully and mindfully followed, this method really works.

Now, because people who are related to me visit this site, I will refrain from discussing the sex part in any great detail, but it will suffice to say that any kind of sex will do, whether or not you have (a) partner(s). As for exercise, I favor the basic variety -- jogging, sit-ups, disco -- but if you go in for the yoga or the pilates or the tae bo, that's all good too. As long as it leaves you flushed and shiny and in need of a shower, it counts. Yes, you can consider exertive sex exercise (whore), but if you're following the S.E.W. Good System, you can only count each roll in the hay as one or the other. So you'll have to log two hours of booty in order to get your recommended daily allowance of vitamins S and Ex.

Writing is the most unstable category. For me, it's the most loaded, too, because I came to Paris intending to do it seriously, whatever that means. A long project was what I had in mind, a novel, why not, what with all this free time I'd have on my hands. I knew from the start that I was not one to go in for narrative. I can barely manage to describe the plot of a movie I've seen without stuttering and wandering off and getting tangled in insignificant details. It's language itself that draws me to writing -- this endless procession of signifiers and parts of speech that make up a grammar, and the memories and ideas that resist its precsriptions. I set up this site, in part, as a repository for daily stories, to practice the act of telling them as simply as possible, without getting bogged down in style and the pursuit of the perfect metaphor. Sometimes this practice is enough, and I like the immediacy, the audience, that you are reading this from where you are. But I need to take it further, so on most days, the results of my writing hour end up on another page entirely. Your writing time can be spent doing something else - painting, coding, taking notes what have you. The idea is to devote at least one out of every 24 hours to intellectual or creative production -- ideally outside the confines of what you consider your job.

This system is not for everyone. Certainly, it needs to be adapted to individual needs and priorities, and don't quit the Ritalin or the Xanax or the Zoloft or the St. John's Wort without consulting your physician or herbalist. In my experience, however, if I've accomplished even one out of three at the end of the day, I'm doing okay. Two out of three ain't bad either, but three out of three really is S.E.W. Good.

Well, it's better than chicken soup for the fucking soul, anyway.