I wasn't procrastinating. I spent a day going to Stratford (Mother Courage) and yesterday I had a guest for lunch and then a different guest for dinner - lots of cooking (and wine) - so I went to bed before I wrote a blog. Today I will get into some serious procrastination and writing. I hope it's productive.

Do you know what a "hybrid essay" is? I scribbled the phrase after reading it somewhere. I had a feeling it's related to blogs.

I'm sorry I asked. I just looked it up. There is a wealth of material, and it's very educational, boiling down to "how to write an essay" in 25 steps or less. Good reminders, I guess, for people who want to write essays or blogs, who do not understand the form. Is there a prescribed form for a blog?

I've mentioned Addison and Steele before. Did I also mention Charles Lamb (1775-1834), aka Elia? He is best known for his Essays of Elia and for the Tales from Shakespeare that he wrote with his sister Mary. (He handled the tragedies and she the comedies.) I'm sure that the great essayists of the past would be bloggers today. Does anyone else remember reading them at school? I read Lamb in elementary school, I think, anyway, a long time ago. I remember an essay about roast pig. It's hard for a child to understand humour, especially when it's expressed in an earlier form of the language. Formal sounds serious, even when it's not. Addison and Steele were a paired subject for me to study in my second year at university. O, come on! I was sixteen and not very sophisticated. I did, however, drink coffee. If those men were alive today they'd hang out at Starbucks. I wonder what they would have thought of latté?

Well, it's another day and I have more to procrastinate about.

My father, the doctor, used to marvel at his use of time as the years went by. When he was a young, newly-fledged practitioner, he said he spent huge amounts of time and attention on each case. As his experience broadened - deepened - he didn't have to. That is, he could distinguish between urgent and not-so. He knew the difference and his skill developed so that he could deal with a dislocated shoulder in a matter of minutes and spend more time on something more complicated and serious. That's the principle of triage.

Remember that sort of a joke: a patient complains to a doctor about the cost of the treatment he has received, saying that the time it took couldn't possibly cost so much (like re-locating a shoulder?). The doctor explained the breakdown of the account: Pushing a dislocated shoulder back into place - $5.00. Knowing where to push - $100.00 (or whatever the going rate was).

I thought of that as I ponder my past. I had so much energy and I squandered it lavishly. I am more careful now and try to expend it where it counts, before I run out. I guess I needed to learn where to push.