10 Minutes.

One of my mentors as a teenager had a toddler a few years back who hated to go to bed. Alex would kick'n'scream until his daddy would sit him down and say,
"Now, Alex, you have two choices: One - You can go to bed now-"
"I dowanna goda bed!!!"
"TWO - You can sleep for ten minutes then get up and do whatever you want."
"I dowanna g-" And, the three-year-old would pause in his tantrum to think on it and take a quick poop in his diaper. "Ten minutes?"
"Ten minutes."
"Ok!" And, Alex would run up the stairs and dive into bed and pull the covers up and

Sleep.

All night long.

I started this post with the goal of writing for ten minutes. As Alex did, I hope to stretch that time a bit. An all night writing session might be a little much for a medical student in the throws of exam prep, but an hour couldn't hurt. Hell, maybe I'll even edit before posting.

I spend so many days putting off little joys, small tasks and large responsibilities with the droning mantra of, "Ten more minutes; One more Ze frank show; One quick nap..." Alex's response seems much more pragmatic: running upstairs so as to get through the unpleasantries as quickly as possible. Maybe I'd find that once I was there I would be caught up in my innate desire to participate in and complete the tasks at hand. Like Alex finding himself wrapped up in the warmth and softness of his own bed, maybe I'd write all night.

Tonight, though, writing is the game, the show, the fun I'd like to have before bed. I'm putting off my studies for these few moments of leisure. What I should do - what I'm going to do now - is turn off the computer and run to my books as fast as I can so as to get through with the unpleasantries as quickly as possible.

I'll be back in 10 minutes.