March 23, 2010

adventures in minimalism


Long ago, before google, I belonged to an internet writers' group that ran as a listserv. Members contributed stories, mostly autobiographical, which were distributed without editing or annotation; everything happened via email. Many of the members wrote daily. I too contributed regularly, but in a minimalist vein, sending in, for some time, an almost-daily report consisting, in its entirety, of either:
Breakfasted; walked dog.
Or:
Walked dog; breakfasted.
The choice depended simply on in which order I had done those two things that morning.

One Saturday, it happened that my wife woke early and walked the dog without me. So, I contributed, on that day, to this story-writers' list, an email that consisted of a single-word sentence:
Breakfasted.
In reply, I received, from people in many nations, emails asking – some quite anxiously! – about the health of my dog.

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