Happy St. Expedite's Day!

Happy St. Expedite’s Day to all who celebrate!

The statue of St. Expeditus, By Piotr Rymuza - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50467781

And who was St. Expedite? I learned of his existence from Andrew Santella’s charming Soon: An Overdue History of Procrastination, from Leonardo and Darwin to You and Me. (Full disclosure: the Lichtenbergian Society and I are in chapter 6. We joked about whose book would come out first; it was mine.)

Expedite was (?) a Roman centurion considering converting to Christianity. While he was meditating on this, Satan appeared to him in the form of a crow and told him he could do it tomorrow, just put it off.

No, he exclaimed, and stepped on the bird, crushed it, and converted on the spot.

(Astute readers will notice the crow in the sculpture is bearing a sign saying CRAS, i.e., ‘tomorrow,’ as in Cras melior est: ‘Tomorrow is better.’ The cross Expedite is holding up bears the word HODIE, ‘Today!’)

St. Expedite is therefore the patron saint of procrastinators, although one prays to him to be cured of procrastination, not to use it as an effective creative strategy. Though who knows? He may have expanded his portfolio.

So just know that as you put off until tomorrow Project A (so that you can work on Project B or C or…) St. Expedite is smiling down on your efforts. I, alas, have a day full of tasks that I cannot put off — if I want to be on the road to Emergence burn in the morning — but I’m with you in spirit!