Monday, September 04, 2006
(8:27 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Walking away from my problems
I mentioned the other day that my course list for the coming semester was settled on after some shuffling. Specifically, the Marx mini-seminar has been in the works since the end of last school year, and I joined at the last minute. On joining (on Friday), I learned that the reading assignment for the first class was the first part of the Marx-Engels Reader, amounting to 200 pages. Taken in isolation, that's not a ton to get done over the course of four days, but I also had some reading for 20th Century I wanted to finish, which took me up to early Sunday afternoon.I read through the introduction to the reader, then put down the book, as though I physically could not read any more. After mindlessly looking at the Internet for a few minutes, I decided to go for a walk. I planned out my route -- walk down Lincoln Ave. from Lawrence to Irving Park, then turn around and come back. It would be a round trip of little over two miles, I would've gotten some decent exercise for the day, and I would come back ready to read. Lincoln Ave. is a pretty remarkable stretch, full of shops and restaurants, just one block after another, for miles and miles -- so when I got to Irving Park, I thought, "Oh, no big deal, I can go a couple more blocks."
Before long, I had reached the northside Powell's (at Diversey), which is approximately three miles from my starting point. I probably would've gone further, to the very end of Lincoln, but Powell's gave me an endpoint other than arbitrarily turning around and going back. When I entered the store, I thought, "Okay, I'll look around, then walk a couple blocks over to the Brown Line and take that home." I found a book for one of my classes, bought it, and then started walking back. I stopped at a burrito place about halfway home, and when I left the restaurant, there was a bus that goes along Lincoln right there, waiting at a light -- I scorned it.
Then, about four blocks from home, I saw an acquaintance -- a friend of Marta, an occasional commenter and poster here -- who I tend to run into in weird locations. She was out for a walk, too, so we walked and talked for a while. When we got near my house, I invited her to come up for a beer or a glass of water, and she decided to just keep walking. I got the impression she might've been creeped out, but my intentions were not only "completely innocent," but potentially even insulting to her: I was literally only inviting her to hang out for a few minutes so that I could delay reading Marx. It was just a continuation of my entire odyssey yesterday, which had been predicated on avoiding Marx -- first getting physically far away from the book, then taking as long as possible to get back to it.
I'd say that's a pretty extreme reaction to being burned out on reading. Anyway, I read about 70 pages of Marx last night after I got back, and I can finish it this afternoon, as long as I don't randomly decide to walk to the lake and go swimming or something.
