“THE TROUBLE WITH ORGANIZING A THING IS THAT PRETTY SOON FOLKS PAY MORE ATTENTION TO THE ORGANIZATION THAN WHAT THEY’RE ORGANIZED FOR.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder
I set here with books, downloaded copies, notes, and an ever increasing mountain of paper building on three sides of me like storm clouds in the southwest. It could end up coming down in a big splash and whatever form of organization I have will be just another mess.
So I am now sorting and throwing away things that are three years old under everything else I have been collecting for the research on my book. Since this is a great diversion from the insanity that our politicians and news media clutter our brains with, this project has been very fun and educational. It also keeps me from ranting to the reader on and on about the insanity that passes for intelligence in the world today.
Research is a slow process, especially on the type of subject matter I have chosen. When your topics are obscure and not well known there is very little out there on them. I have had some wonderful people who have responded quickly on my inquiries. And there are some who never answer an e-mail at all.
Of course it is time consuming when you have to stop and read everything in the piles to make sure that it is really information or just trash. Sometimes it is hard to tell, but it is amazing the little unexpected clues to a subject pop up when you least expect it.
I found a brochure that a local lady included in piles of clippings on the anniversary celebration of Carey Nation. It reminded me that a teacher who was a guest not long ago told me that Carey had been dropped from the history curriculum that she had in school to teach.
This just redoubles my effort to discover as many stories as I can. When you cannot even be confident that the mainline sources for teaching history are dropping major figures, how bad is the rest being lost?
I have now devised a plan to get organized and be more efficient with my work. This will really blow the mind of those who are amazed that I can even build a sentence and get it published. And soon as I get this plan working then I will venture down the steps to my office and try to repeat the feat. WOW! Talk about getting organized. You should see the mountains down there. I just don’t get up and down stairs very well anymore.
Now that I am on story 122, when I get really organized and start actually returning phone calls I may make the goal of 500 in a year, or two, or three, well lets leave that open. Hopefully when this is done there is still a right of free speech and an economy that will have a few people left that have the extra income and interest to buy the book.
