Tue, Dec 12 2006

Wake-up chair

Some people think that writers are not prone to injury the way fire fighters and police officers are. It's true that we're rarely involved in high-speed chases and are seldom called upon to assist victims of structure fires from burning buildings. Rarely is a writer shot, though some folks might argue in favor of an open season on some of us. What we do tend to experience are chronic, ergonomic injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, lower-back pain and tendonitis.

However, it has come to my attention this morning that writers, and others, who purchased a particular desk and chair set may have placed themselves in a potentially perilous situation. This leads me to further musing about the issue of doing most of one's work seated precariously in a chair. My chair also happens to be armless. I've been known to fall asleep during my work and nearly fall out onto the floor, resulting in sudden awakening and an interjecting dose of fight-or-flight response that would send the average elephant into sub-orbit.

And so, I have a great solution for the folks who manufacture Model number NF913232. I would advise them to act quickly in order not to let this landmark experience become a class-action lawsuit. Instead of cowering under the desk (which I presume to be in better working order than the chair) from the office set, they should use this issue as market research for the very type of chair that sedentary writers really need. With a bit of tweaking, this chair could be equipped to allow us only a limited amount of that dozing, drooping posture before kicking in a mechanism that slammed us back into an upright position suitable for cranking out copy.

posted at: 07:14 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry