I can’t decide if writing is a natural act. I feel off kilter if I don’t write. Numb, clogged, incomplete. Which suggests that writing can be an act of necessity. There’s a fascinating book on this topic, The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block and the Creative Brain, by Alice W. Flaherty, a neurologist. But writing gets exhausting. It’s physically challenging. It requires foresaking activity. Sitting hour upon hour is not good for one's muscle tone. The word “atrophy” comes to mind. Repetitive motion is not good for wrists or pre-arthritic finger knuckles. Then there is the cerebral component. To write well, you have to stay on high alert. That’s draining, too.
Yet I write. Besides this blog, I write for a living. I am doing my MFA. My courseload this semester is not negligible. Plenty of writing, yessiree. I am loving it. Right now I am deep into an essay that grew out of an earlier post on this blog, over at Travel Contests. “Deep” as in I lose track of the hour. “Deep” as in I am experiencing writer’s high. It feels like it used to feel when I jogged. Before I got shin splints. I’ll post which post if this sucker sees the light of day.
I’ve got an intriguingly high concept sweeps today. It’s from Ben and Jerry’s, the ice cream folks. I know the original owners got a lot of grief at some point for not being as pure and evolved as they were holding themselves out to be, but come on. These guys were definitely notches about the rest. And still are, since I believe they still have a hand in running the company they founded. Discovering this sweeps so recently after my trip to Hershey made me realize that some of our most enlightened capitalists – if anything, Milton Hershey was a utopian – are in the food business. Besides Ben and Jerry and Hershey, Paul Newman is quite the entrepreneurial philanthropist. What is up with that? Is it that their products are meant to comfort and delight? Me thinks so.
This one is for a trip to Alaska’s Denali National Park & Prince William Sound with REI Adventures, the outfitter division of the gear company. The sweeps consists of the usual shameless production promotion in that the Grand Prize includes a year’s worth of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. It is also an attempt to raise awareness about sustainable travel and global warming, by promoting Native Energy, a Vermont-based conservation group. Check out its travel offsets program HERE.
To enter, click HERE.
One entry per person. The sweeps closes October 5.