Points

Get to the point.

What's the point?

Right now the point is grading these screenplays
because I have to pay for school
because I'm getting my degree
because I want stability in my field
because I want to be comfortable while helping people
because I want to be happy and help others.

Monday the point was Get Home and Study Theory at All Costs.
But first--a writer's meet-up at the hipster bar near my condo. Feedback, discussion, plans, and towards the end Quarry burst into tears that were so dramatic I immediately thought she was joking. But she wasn't. She is getting divorced. It's good, but it's still hard.
The meeting was over, and it was late, and the point! The point was calling me!
One person left. Two. But, then...I stayed. I gritted my teeth and stayed with her and Boulder while they drank beers. I stayed because I knew it was right. We made this woman we write with laugh and think and we agreed with her and I knew it was right to stay if only because I could keep the laughs coming when Boulder went to the bathroom. You know? That matters.

So, finally, it was near my bedtime, and I still hadn't studied, and then I said, "Okay. Okay enough's enough. It really is time" and I walked out of the patio and biked home. And, you know, I didn't worry. Because no matter what I was getting to the point. If the point of doing well on my final was to eventually help people, then I needed to help Quarry in her time of need. That's how it works.

We say "get to the point" but probably more often than we know, we're already on it.