It’s always interesting to take a few moments to reflect, but a reflection can dissipate like water slipping through your hands, so what’s the point? As long as one can clarify something in the moments away in one’s mind.

So, this is what I did.

I was scrolling through a list of films, some I had seen, most I had not, and others I wouldn’t want to see. After listing the ones to see (there were a few), the ones I had seen were listed down as well.

Looking over them, what stood out is that I probably wouldn’t see any of the ones I had seen again. The ones on my wish list looked more appealing. Naturally, they would as I don’t know a lot about them.

What could be said for the ones I wouldn’t see again? Let me think for a moment. They were films seen when writing about films for a publication in 2016. 10 Cloverfield Lane, The 33, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Arrival, Angry Birds, Ant-Man, The Assassin, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Batman vs. Superman; Dawn of Justice, The BFG, Brooklyn, Captain America: Civil War. There were more in 2016, but I just scrolled between the letters A and C on the list. Those films were seen because I was an entertainment columnist and was doing what I should to keep the column up to date. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have seen them and on seeing them (apart from Arrival which blew me away at the time) wouldn’t bother to see any of them again, but with a soft spot for two or three of them although uncommitted.

These days, moviegoing is about, for me, what’s really compelling me to watch, not a “job description”.

What do I see in this reflection? I see that writing is about the “job description” although the very nature of writing is art. Art and a job description don’t fit. But how one writes within the parameters of the job description is the art of writing.

Another question is what to do with those movies one sees, but doesn’t want to engage again? For a writer, that’s about what’s already been written about them. It’s there in words. A writer can be satisfied with that.