I set a new rule for myself: create. Don't link, don't borrow, don't quote; create. Write. Translate. Tell stories.

So I stayed in tonight with a mild fever and the intention of writing an essay. I hadn't yet decided on a topic. Maybe an essay on which fiction is best to read when running a temperature. Or on the urban/rural tug-of-war in Louis Bromfield's novels. 12 Angry Men was on TV; maybe I'd finally write up my month long social experiment on jury duty. I made some jasmine tea, opened a blank document, but first decided to read some things I'd been meaning to get to.

And I read this.

And it was so well written that all the writing was knocked right out of me.

Well there goes that rule out the window.