Common Sense and Pride

Sometimes what you want is not what you need.
Sometimes pride trips you up.

I want to go to Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference this August. I want to see some of the friends I made last year. I want to stay off campus in an air-conditioned hotel room so I have my own bathroom and a cool place to put my feet up.

Last time I left early. The heat was unbearable. Vermont people think they do not need air conditioning. They fool themselves. They make jokes about how Southerners do not prepare for snow – but they don’t prepare for heat.

The conference is held in a rickety old hotel which isn’t quaint, just rickety.

So why do I want to go?

Pride. It’s the oldest conference in the country, the most prestigious, and I want to get invited twice. Common sense says, Nancy, you’ve been once – your first try. You have nothing to prove. Common sense is right.

Common sense says, Nancy, you don’t have anything to work on in workshop.
Common sense is right. The well has been utterly dry lately.

Common sense says, Nancy, if you get into Sewanee they have AIR CONDITIONING. Common sense is right.

Sometimes what you want is not what you need.
Sometimes pride trips you up.