Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Writing Topic Tuesday – The Maintenance Edition

ToolboxI wrote an essay 20 years ago for my college non-fiction writing workshop about the subject of maintenance.  I don’t remember the specifics about it now, but what I do remember was the theme that focused on the importance of maintenance within every aspect of your life. If you don’t change the oil on your car regularly, the engine will blow.  If you fail to clean out the gutters on your house, the roof will start leaking. If you don’t maintain your friendships, your friends will drift away.


In this crazy, hyper-accelerated, over-scheduled lifestyle many of us lead, it is no surprise that issues of maintenance or simply maintaining something often is forgotten or delayed indefinitely, many times until it is too late.

Here are your topics surrounding the theme of maintenance:
  • What do you think about the word maintenance?
  • Are you a good maintenance man or woman? Why or why not?
  • Maintaining one aspect of your life well often comes at the expense of poor maintenance in another. What are your areas?
  • How are you at maintaining your relationships with family, friends and co-workers? What do you do to keep them connected and strong?
  • What does a life well-maintained look like?
  • When you see something with a feature of “maintenance proof,” what do you see or expect?
  • Is it possible to go through life without maintaining anything?
  • What was the last maintenance task you performed? Why was it important?
  • What was the worst thing that ever happened to you as the result of poor maintenance?
  • Every good maintenance man/woman has a toolkit.  What is in your life maintenance toolkit?

2 comments:

Karen Baldwin said...

Maintenance toolkit? Lord! I guess I've been flying by the seat of my jeans for, well, like forever. But ya got me thinking.

Michael said...

Flying by the seat of the pants? Well, ain't that the normal life of any writer? If I ever had a project that worked out to be just like I envisioned it in my head, I think it would explode. Thanks for reading.