I might not be posting a lot of things on here for a bit. It’s not because I’ve run out of creativity, it’s because all of my energy is being siphoned away by a succubus-like monster known as my dissertation. When I’m NOT working on my dissertation, I also get that panicky feeling of knowing I should be working on my dissertation. I thought I would give everyone a glimpse into my creative process. The order of my thoughts while writing and researching goes roughly like this:

1. the history of things not related to my dissertation

2. religious and spiritual history not related to my dissertation

3. cleaning

4. organizing things

5. calling up old friends I haven’t chatted with in a while

6. sequences for the next yoga class I’m teaching

7. DISSERTATION

8. the history of yoga

9. Gracie Jiu Jitsu… oh look, a new guard pass on youtube!

10. jiu jitsu tournaments

11. is it safe to eat runny eggs?

12. the essential uncertainty of all human knowledge

13. hypothetical bad things that could happen

14. DISSERTATION

15. cute baby sloths

16. cute baby humans

17. angst about being home schooled

18. DISSERTATION

19. maybe I could write a history of jiu jitsu in America?

20. OK FINE, DISSERTATION…. and so on.

The fact that my dissertation still pops up that often in my stream of thought is proof that I actually like my subject. In fact, I really like my subject. It’s both macro, in that it connects to some of the big themes we see in twentieth-century history, and micro, in that it’s specifically about a certain person in a certain time period. My problem is that there is so much untapped archival and newspaper material to turn into a finished product. Oh, and also comic books- there are retro/creepy Cold War-era comic books relating to my topic, with lots of scary imaginings of what might happen if the Communists took over America. Now, back to writing….