Today is just “one of those days.” You know the kind I mean? Those days when despite all of the piles of work staring at you you just can’t seem to get started on anything so you manage to just fritter the whole day away? It is one of those days when I cling to this great quote by Lillian Hellman: “You do too much. Go and do nothing for a while. Nothing.”
So who was Lillian Hellman and why did she write/say that? Hellman was a famous woman playwright in an era when the field was dominated by men. I like this quote from a PBS story on her: “She became a writer at a time when writers were celebrities and their recklessness was admirable.” Ahh…to live in such a time! And in spite of her being, again to quote PBS, “a smoker, a drinker, a lover, and a fighter” she lived to the ripe old age of 79, still as active and feisty as she could be. You might recognize some of her work: The Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic…She was compared to Ibsen and Strindberg. She was also very left of center in her politics and ended up going on trial as a communist by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
I wonder when she would have coined such a phrase since all that I have read about her implies that she led a busy, full life. Maybe she had days like this too? Maybe that’s what drove her to write…