The Red Queen

When Alice complained that they were not getting anywhere with their constant running, the Queen said that in Wonderland it always takes all the running you can do just to stay in the same place.

Most of us do struggle to keep up, and in my case it has to do with paper. I get too many newspapers and magazines, including the New York Sunday Times. I spend as much time at the kitchen table throwing away papers into a box as I do eating.

The solution is simple. I must stop getting some things, but which ones? Also, I must conquer the backlog of many hundreds of pages torn out for later. Well, this is later. If I don't conquer this mountain, Mrs. Red Queen, I'll never get to the quietly waiting pile of requests from all the charities. I've given to over 100 of them, and mail from new ones keeps arriving, thanks to the efficient computers that spread my information around, and systematically churn out bulk mail. Between papers and charities, I am cornered.

My spare time is gone, and I wonder how I ever held down a steady job, or indeed paid any attention to my own family, who appeared from somewhere, somehow. Is it fear of something, or instinct, or just habit that makes me like this? And what do I mean by just habit?

Maybe I should read Alice and Through the Looking Glass again, or consult the Red Queen myself. If I weren't so busy, I'd get around to that.

Right now I'm off to bed, because I have so much to attend to tomorrow.