TOD 03.12.08

I’ve recently rediscovered my old love of doing crossword puzzles. Oh, I’m no expert by any means, but I can usually solve the LA Times puzzle Monday through Thursday. Sunday just makes me cry. But on the plane to Florida last week, I started crafting clever clues for words. Then I started fiddling with a grid, and I wound up creating a whole crossword over the course of a few days…a good one, I might add.

Before submitting it to the newspaper, I discovered from their guidelines that I had broken several different rules and it couldn’t be accepted. I was devastated, but then again I wasn’t. See, I knew that I had enjoyed making it. A lot. And even though I couldn’t sell it, I could still share it with my friends and maybe even on my blog. Would I have done it just for fun anyway? Probably. And that’s why it was a useful reminder.

The best case scenario is to always try to be doing things that we would do for their own sake even if no money comes from it. It’s a good safeguard against allowing ourselves to be tempted into anything for the love of money…or a byline.