My students drifted out of consciousness as I waxed poetic.

“Time’s heavy hand presses on our life’s journey to offer scope for our decisions. A perception of urgency fills us, as if the dying light and our impending doom are a golden thread we follow. And so, a writer’s sense of urgency impresses an image in our mind, one of legacy, accomplishment—a book on the shelves with our name on it. We call this a dream.”

Blank stares. 

I tried again. “Instead of writing, we binge watch television. In our pajamas. While eating ice cream.” 

“Yeah, professor. Cool. All good. I like ice cream.”

My point is, how do we balance the muses with our need to chill and relax?

We can offer ourselves a little of both. A balance. A few moments of writing, and then give into the entertainment we crave.

However, our writing life can be torture. We want to relax while we write. And we feel guilty when we relax because we’re not writing.

Pretend you are standing between two horses. There’s a rope tied to your left hand which extends to the saddle horn to a horse. On the opposite side, your right hand is extended by a rope tied to another horse. The horses are galloping away from each other, trying to split you in two. The pull is terrible.

In the center of any position, whether political, academic, or in our personal lives, the tension is overwhelming. It would be easier to drift to one side or the other and camp there. Just like when you balance writing and relaxing, the tension is intense. Difficult. It’s easier to be obsessed about writing. Or simply relax when we’re not tired.

When you relax, know that you will write better. And when you write, know that you will relax happily if you put in your writing day. And even more importantly, know that even if you understand the relax/work concept perfectly, you’re still going to feel the tension of the two horses pulling you. To balance the two will not stop the pull toward either. But you will be a healthier person by creating equilibrium in your life.