January
29
Why I Haven’t Returned Your Email
Here’s the problem: I wish I could keep up with email but I can’t. There are just too darn many of them. And they aren’t emails with yes or no responses. They require contracts, research, phone calls, sketches or hard decisions. I feel like Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate factory. There are a lot of possible explanations as to why I haven’t responded. I might be on a business trip. I might be rushing to meet a deadline. Or I might have a respiratory infection and not be able to focus enough to send back a well-considered response. But you know what? I might also be cooking dinner for my family. Or doing laundry. Or organizing carpools for my daughter’s soccer team. Or I might be having lunch with a friend because I need a good laugh. Or hemming up a pair of pants for our daughter’s choir performance. There’s even a possibility that I am playing the Settlers of Cataan with my family. I might be at the gym generating some needed endorphins. Or cleaning up after a foster puppy. The thing is, I’m not ignoring you. I truly will get back to you as soon as I am possibly able, it’s just that I need to be able to do more than respond to emails all day. I just need a few sips of life first. And if anyone decides to invent a busy signal for emails, I’m in.
yes. it's my real name. 
I actually wonder if some of the people with the long email chains just like talking with you. Obviously they aren’t grasping that you can’t give of yourself that way to everyone that you work with in your business. I think it’s the nature of quilting and the people who are attracted to it. I think you probably handle it very well, considering the difficulty of fitting it into all that you do.
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I think you’re correct Celeste. It’s clear that some people are excited and can’t resist the urge to send “Did you get my email!?” follow-ups 24 hrs after they just emailed me, not realizing that I may be teaching or traveling that day or just dealing with a website crash. Ironically if they’d stop sending so many extraneous emails I’d be able to get back to them sooner because I’d have fewer emails to read.
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Ha, a busy signal for emails! I think a lot of people will join in a Kickstarter campaign for that idea Weeks.
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Love this!
Writer and critic Edmund Wilson had the following form postcard printed with which he would answer unwanted requests for his time:
“Edmund Wilson regrets that it is impossible for him to: Read manuscripts, write books and articles to order, write forewords or introductions, make statements for publicity purposes, do any kind of editorial work, judge literary contests, give interviews, conduct educational courses, deliver lectures, give talks or make speeches, broadcast or appear on television, take part in writer’s congresses, answer questionnaires, contribute to or take part in symposiums or ‘panels’ of any kind, contribute manuscripts for sales, donate copies of his books to libraries, autograph books for strangers, allow his name to be used on letterheads, supply personal information about himself, supply photographs of himself, supply opinions on literary or other subjects.”
And that was long before email.
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