It’s Monday, and we all might feel the weight of the work week ahead. I have on my desk legendary journalist Robert Caro’s book Working, which I sometimes open to a random page when I feel stuck in the writing or reporting process.
Caro, who in the book mentions cutting 350,000 words from his magnum opus The Power Broker, says that he is “naturally lazy,” which I just don’t believe. But it’s nice to hear him say that. His rules for himself, even as a writer who may not see anyone else in a day, are to wear a suit and tie so he feels like he’s doing a job and to always produce at least three pages each day. He talks about being in a bad mood when he’s trying to boil down an idea about a historical figure like Robert Moses, but he knows the purpose of that kind of slow, mental work.
“The more light that can be thrown on the actual processes we’re voting about, the better,” he said in Working. “We live in a democracy, so ultimately, even despite a Robert Moses, a lot of political power comes from our votes. The more we understand about the realities of the political process, the better informed our votes will be. And then, presumably, in some very diffuse, inchoate way, the better our country will be.”
Whether or not we’re wearing business suits every day, it’s helpful to think that our small, faithful efforts at our jobs can make a difference in some “inchoate way.”
