

Discover more from Ask E. Jean
Tormented? Driven Witless? Whipsawed by Confusion? Ask E. Jean is the longest currently-running advice column in American publishing.
Continue reading
Frittering and Fabulous Reader!
Do we have any champion idlers among us?
Do we have any Walt-Whitman-esque, star-gazing, dreaming, lounging, napping, dicking-around, dilly-dallying geniuses?
Only world-class loafers may reply.
Bonus Questions:
Is it possible for you to be creative WITHOUT practicing the art of lying in bed? And…..what’s your advice for someone who’s too uptight to relax?
Send questions, please, to E.Jean@AskEJean.com. Thanks!
The Virtues of Lolling
I am lying abed at this very moment and intend to stay here for most of the day. This comes after picking a bushel of apples from the garden and turning them into chunky apple sauce and doing the same with heirloom tomatoes. I'll do the dishes tomorrow because I have much thinking and resting and contemplating to do the rest of the day. And a facial from an E. Jean recipe of yesteryear -- a spoon of yogurt, a spoon of honey and a strawberry mashed together. Highly recommended!
I write during naps. When I really want to think something through, I throw back the covers and climb in. Freud called dreams "the Royal Road" to the psyche--and I think they're the Royal Road to every uncharted place. And frequent napping has another blessing to bestow: the hours awake each night while the world quietly sleeps ... just me and my dog--who has friends in the darkness who scamper up a tree or huddle in their little dens in the oak grove--and I who am a midnight star gazer who listens to Casseopeia scream silently across the sky as the whole universe revolves. Sleeping in the day and waking in the night has always been my secret happiness. Now I've busted myself!