NOTE: DCP author Ted Berland has shared with us a five-part series about his life as a writer.  We hope you enjoy getting to know this prolific author who wrote The Diabetic Wine Lover’s Guide, published by Dudley Court Press in 2015.

Nathan Hendller, writing in The New Yorker (Feb. 1, 2016, p.62) wrote that “Flight is the best metaphor for writing that I know. The sublimity of the act is heightened by the earthly mess around it.”

Amen.

In many ways I do feel sublime when I am writing, just as my computer dictionary defines sublime, as “of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration.”

And I am surrounded by mess: piles of files of papers I once needed or thought I needed or haven’t needed in a while—as well as a pile of stuff that I anticipate needing or need now.

Also, in this bit-based world, my MacBook Pro is crammed with electronic files. My past works remain electronically dormant; my current writings such as this are projected on my screen with a few touches of the keyboard (that word a hangover from the typewriter era).

My environment is silent but for strains of music (mostly classical) emanating from the radio (tuned to WFMT) in the bedroom.

That I speak not on the phone, or otherwise, while I am in the writing mode perplexes those who try to interrupt my silence with phone calls. Because my answering voice is low, they often ask, “What’s wrong?”

Imagine!

Anyway, as we say, there are times when I am so stimulated, I am so part of what I am writing, that I just don’t want to exit the mood to answer the phone; I allow it to automatically take a message that I can answer later.

Like now.

Excuse me.

Sorry. It was my younger daughter, telling me she and her kids and my other, older daughter and her kids want to join me here next Sunday for brunch, when fresh whole shrimp are served!

Back to quiet.

It is easy to control my environment, as I live alone in a 1-bedroom apartment in a ”senior community.” (We used to call these old peoples’ homes.)

I interact with other people as I wish. This mainly occurs at intervals when I leave the apartment to go down and to exercise in the gym, or in the dining room at meals times, or when I attend special events, or take my meds, or go out with family and/or friends.

In my self-imposed routine I mostly write after lunch. Mornings are for phone calls and email, evenings for relaxation.

My girlfriend and I usually get together on weekends.

Not such a bad life.(More later. Questions and comments welcome.)

(More later. Questions and comments welcome.)

©2016 Theodore Berland /All Rights Reserved