I picked up a really nasty bug in Syracuse that wiped me out for the better part of a week. Gambling that your attention span is as compromised as mine, and that you won't remember I've been failing to respond to comments since long before Syracuse, I'm blaming the bug.

This has been a hell of a month for trying to get anything done. Kathleen's picked up a whole lot of contract work, which means we can keep the boys, but it also means I'm the only parent on duty most evenings. Evenings are my music/writing/film work time--though not so much anymore.

It's not so much that I'm a big baby about this. Although that is true, it's not my issue. It's other people's. My issue is that that when I don't get my work time, I can barely stand all the other hours I have to spend in my skin.

Minutes spent making little boys crack up or throwing them up in the air do not count against "itchy in my skin" time, and neither do sleeping or bicycling minutes--though I haven't cycled to the day job in weeks. Too worn out. Everything else does: eating, commuting, errands, day job... I can't stand any of it. If I'm not getting my stuff done, life is a hairshirt.

Nonfiction proposal--not getting done.

Novel--not getting done.

Short story--not getting done.

Film postproduction--only thing getting done, during as many hours as I can chisel out of what could be sleep time or wife time.

So that's why I haven't been answering comments--and why I haven't been reading, watching movies, or listening to music. But I've been reading what you've been saying, and the Pesach comments, in particular, are still reverberating. Kaytie's, especially: Sometimes I feel very alone in my opinion that values can be taught outside the confines of religion.

I never feel alone in my opinion that values and religion are two different things, but that's probably because I think it's so obvious that no one could possibly miss it. Religion is often packaged with values, but I also know how to find saliva-activated tattoos without buying a box of Crackerjack.

There are codes of behavior. Some are religious. Some aren't. Mine isn't. I don't think I'm more likely to murder, cheat, or bear false witness than whoever's sitting six pews back on the left. And I think anybody who disagrees is all theory.

As the joke goes: In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're not.

Break's over. Maybe I'll get ten more seconds of music written before bed.

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