By Prokofy Neva, Virtualtor

My friend Pearl Grey in Second Life, who is an artist and writer had the most wonderful idea. (Go and read her stories here and her SL adventures here to see how talented she is. Also find the chain of cafes with art throughout SL which she and her colleague Klaus Bereznyak, my long-time neighbour in Patagonia, maintain)

Pearl is a great friend to go around looking at art shows in SL, comparing notes of what shows we've heard about, and checking out strange, forgotten art projects. I remember we kept re-visiting this huge hill of art works on the ground and sky in Keuka which was like the Land that Time Forgot, frozen in 2007 as to materials and capabilities. I bought some of the works and tried contacting the artists — many had either left SL or didn't do art here anymore and only one was found still active who was surprised the outdoor gallery was still there. We never heard back from the original owner, and in due course the Lindens cleared the entire area, possibly because someone had asked for the clearly abandoned land (although it had sat there for years with the art works).

Pearl is also a great sympathizer to my tales of life's woes and my immune disease and here I will tell you her Amazing Idea. As they say, Try This One Amazing Trick!

Everyone has "To-Do" lists they make — long or short, hard or easy, half do or do or throw away, and they vex one with their state of "undone-ness." I have one always hand-written at my keyboard as I can never stick with apps.

So, why not try something different rather than that daily exasperation and self-reproach? (It's never one.)

Why not make a "Done" list? In fact, sometimes, given after-exertion fatigue, you can only get one thing done. So you have to pace yourself — one day you go out to do the groceries. Another day, to help an aged relative. A third day, it's off to the public library to return boooks, etc. Trying to combine a lot of things in one day can mean the next day you lie fallow, unable to lift your arm, I find. I don't have a diagnosis of "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" which is hard to diagnose anyways; I have a very rare immune disease which only at times seems to have the "after exertion fatigue" syndrome. Because one of the medicines has caused hemolytic anemia (still not gone although a bit better since it was suspended about 3 months ago), that can be the cause. 

In any event, I elaborated on the idea of the "one thing per day" out of life's chores to come up with this blog about doing "Just One Thing" on my to-do list. I mean, perhaps I should count "did the dishes" or "flattened all the Amazon boxes and took them to recycling" but that doesn't seem "legit" somehow, and I just want to put something from the "to do" as DONE.

Mind you, sometimes these items have to be chunked up! Baby steps…

So today, starting this blog (I love making new blogs and you can make a bunch of them on Typepad all on one account), I decided I wanted to round up all the documents required for my Medicaid re-application (yes, I'm one of millions thrown off Medicaid), Xerox them, and mail them. OK that's three steps, and the first step could break down around something like my printer not working (bingo).

Even so, in the past, I had found that UPS would print out something you e-mailed them, or let you access your own e-mail…or something. So first I went to where I thought there was still a UPS (I guess it went missing during COVID or I was in the wrong place). Then checking my phone search I trotted off to another, and there they said they could print out something from an email I sent, but that it would cost $5.99. No thanks! So I did the copying there (paying for two blanks for putting it in wrong) and this was already mounting up to be a day where the Just One Thing wasn't going to work — and would have to be chunked.

Next, in quest of a print-out for only 20 cents a page, I arrived at the library at 5:40, but it was closing at 6 pm, and at 5:45, as I struggled to log in my long NYPL library card cpde and its password, all the computers and lights shut off — and the librarian said they were closing, and I'd have to come back tomorrow.

So, chunked up it is:  and we will call it. The Just One Thing is getting all the REST of the papers Xeroxed and ready to go…

I imagined Xerox copies flying off the machine like birds; the boy tending the UPS store couldn't have been more than 10-12 and his father, the owner or clerk at the franchise, had obviously put him to work helping the business; this is why there's a boy in the forest amidst the birds…