Writing, Rabbit Holes, Brain Fog, and Fast Time — Slow Time

by Jeff Bloom

I’ve been thinking more about writing … and not writing, as has been the case that’s been plaguing me recently. My laying of blame for not writing focuses on three issues: (a) the brain fog that seems to accompany my chronic daily headaches; (b) tending to my chronically ill son and the seemingly constant stream of issues with pharmacies, doctors, and insurance companies; and (c) a world, and especially the U.S., that seems to have take a dive off the deep edge.

But, blame is always a combination of a increasing one’s irritation and frustration and a waste of time and energy. For whatever reason, I’m in one of those periods of writing that is like pulling teeth. And, like pulling teeth, you feel better afterwards when the infection has cleared. However, I have been writing, but for less time than usual. What I am writing here in this piece is just a short story of working on three other projects. I work on whichever project I’m thinking about at any given moment. And, to further increase my frustration in not finishing these projects quickly, I’m finding that each project has opened up multiple rabbit holes.

So, on one hand, I’m frustrated in not “producing,” which is not particularly healthy. It’s an artifact of Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s “fast time”[1] and its effect on society and our individual wellbeing. Many of those who write for various venues, write to publish quickly, to get known, to meet deadlines, to make money. It is all a fast time disease. But, the real power of writing is what one learns in the process. And, if you care about learning, you relish the rabbit holes, because that’s where new knowledge, new connections, and unexpected insights lie. To dive into the rabbit holes takes time… slow time. We have to dig, observe, ponder, question, dig some more, ponder more.

This short essay is a result of my meta-pondering about my frustrations and brain fog, while trying to insert more slow time into my life.

NOTE

[1] Eriksen, T. H. (2001). Tyranny of the moment: Fast and slow time in the information age. London, UK: Pluto Press.

© 2024 by Jeffrey W Bloom

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