“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I am not going into the reasons, again, for Ruburt’s condition. One of the primary attitudes, however, had to do with trying “to fight all battles at once” —a good many of them imaginary. He tried to escape from DISTRACTIONS—in capital letters—in a black-and-white fashion, making no distinctions at all. For a while anything that was not writing was a distraction.

Living each day at a time, you respond to the present, and you need not in one day protect yourself from a lifetime of projected distractions or threats to your time that must, in your day, be imaginary, since they are probable events from the future.

Distractions can be easily dealt with, as they occur, by making conscious decisions. They do not require all of the effort and psychological technology of a nuclear war (with humor). They do not require then the full artillery of your defenses—a great waste of your time and effort that could, of course, be devoted to your work.

The men, working here (on Jane’s back room and porch), are distracting. They are not enemies. To Ruburt they represent the world at your door, yet he is seeing other people in a truer light as a result. They are not creatures to be feared, run from. They do not have guns. The larger threat was in his mind.

Regardless of your attitudes, perhaps, those men do not think you both strange for working at home. They recognize you as a different breed than themselves, with different interests and abilities that they rather envy. They even try not to disturb you. Ruburt’s room, in which he hopes to be highly creative, is being built by such people who do know their own kind of creativity, and salute creativity in others. While the affair is distracting, then, it is highly worthwhile on deeper levels.

He overgeneralized, so that each smallest distraction brought out the entire array. Writing would get him the fullest use of his abilities and fulfillment, his own approval and yours, financial security, and hopefully some kind of success in terms of a reputation. You must remember what I told you of your reactions during those years—but your situation, to him, meant that he must work twice as hard, and perhaps have to make it for both of you.