Making an End

"When will you make an end?" My dear husband is wont to quote this famous line from the 1965 Oscar winning movie, The Agony and the Ecstacy--the story of Michelangelo's brilliant and arduous painting of the Sistine Chapel as commissioned by Pope Julius II. It took him FOUR YEARS. And though we have been blessed to travel to Italy and see this unbelievable and breathtaking work of art (gaping aplenty, craning our necks, even lying on the floor), I'm not sure hubby would have been as patient as the Pope.
You see, he's a Nike guy: "Just do it." Rumination? Only for cows.

Therefore, I have heard him quote Rex Harrison (who played Pope Julius) on more than one occasion: "When will you make an end?" Sometimes about my decorating projects, sometimes about the time it takes to get gorgeous for a date, sometimes about dinner.

Lately it's about my latest Work in Progress: DISASTER STATUS, the sequel to CRITICAL CARE. Mind you, I'm well ahead of deadline, but he's still asking the question. And I'm telling him my progress in word counts ( 85 thousand) and pages (293) and chapters (27) and even percentages (98). I'm very close, but not quite finished. Maybe this week. Maybe next. Or . . .

Maybe if I had paint all over my face, like Mr. Heston in the photo above, and lay sweating on a scaffolding high above my office, he would have more empathy for the artistic process. Nah.

I think I'll just type. And next time he asks, I'll smile and say what Heston said to Harrison:

"When it is finished."

But not tell him it's a draft. And that I'll need to go over it again.