Day of Skullduggery

The accompanying photo was taken at Cela Kula, or the Skull Tower of Nis, in Serbia.  It is not in any way a representation of my parenting style.  In fact, it’s only here because I shared the shot with my web page designer (who chooses for now to remain anonymous), and he stuck it on here because he felt it denoted, connoted and signaled my essentially cuddly self.  Truth to tell, I’m only cuddly when I get a solid dose of writing time (and plenty of sleep).  Chekhov once opined that “The pram in the doorway is the enemy of all art.”  He wasn’t precisely wrong, but how many great writers (or artists of any persuasion) truly hated children?  None, I think––or at least none when sober.  Artists of the first rank live fully, and part of living is having children, or participating in the lives of children not one’s own.  What Chekhov meant (and I asked him, he came to visit just yesterday) was that it’s hard to do any actual ideation or creation with children running under foot.  Unfortunately, he makes it sound as if he’d throw the baby out with the bathwater.  And then where would he be?  I’ve had some of my best writing ideas while interacting with my kids.  Put another way, the pram in the doorway is one facet of art…the one that’s often hardest to appreciate.  But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try…

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