So I asked a small group of people – all writers and editors – to give me list of things they couldn’t do without.  Being writers, and with imposed or self-imposed deadlines, they sent their lists to me anyway. I’d like to think it’s because they like me or found this interesting. However, I know that the actual reason is that writers will grab onto just about anything that will help them procrastinate a bit. Even the hyper-disciplined writers are good at this (I’m a genius at it). So here’s the list in no particular order with initials in place of names:

JJ:

Sticky notes and Google

Facebook

John Denver

Hearts of Space (my editing music)

Editing clients

Good, comfy pens

Writer friends, near and far

SM:

Medicare, Social Security,  IBM, Apple,  the Wright brothers, Ben Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Martin Luther, JFK., The Beatles, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Pablo Picasso, Charles Darwin,  Robert Heinlein, my parents (!), my late sister Beth, whoever-the-hell-my-real-estate-agent was in 1979, my wives (past and present) and someone yet to be revealed to me

DD:

Eighteen pills a day

BJ:

Number one on my list: email. Number two, coffee!

RG:

Two things I try to use every day, and wouldn’t want to do without, are — humor, snuggling, cussing, warm water, refrigeration, people who rise above the petty, JJ’s editing help, avocados, grilled fish tacos from Santana’s, good books . . . whoops, was that more than two? And…

Jazz

Powerful female vocalists

Italian food

Mexican food

Humor

Kindness

Love of my wife

Watching dogs

Watching cats

My kid and grandkids

Health

Friends

BS

A roof over my head and adequate food to eat

Good health

Good friends, most of them writers, all of them neat, witty folks

Books

Internet

Tuesday night dinners and Friday breakfasts

A working car

SQ

The running hugs of my children as I come through the door

The connection my iPhone and iPad give me to boundless information (and entertainment)

The implacable support of my mom

My wife and all that she does for our family

Belief that with personal effort, I can make tomorrow better than today

 jg

ways to be creative

nature

trees

love

 

So looking at the list, it’s easy to pick out the primary universal thing: People. Even individuals who close themselves off in front of keyboards in quiet rooms need connections with people.  There’s nothing new in that, of course, but it was an interesting exercise to see what people, who often are by nature and their career choice seen to be loners, still need.  And what do I need?  You.