I keep trying to take a mini-sabbatical, but I don’t think my clients are going along with me on that. My longest stretch without interruption was three hours on Thursday, but that was probably because everyone was watching the World Cup. People take breaks for different reasons. I have two of them. One is simply to catch my breath: I’ve crammed a year’s worth of work into the last four months. But the other reason is that I need to steer myself out of the fast lane for a bit to figure out where I’m going — and where I’m taking this company.

Leave it to me to bring existential questions to bear on a business model. “Yes, this project is bringing in money — but how will the world be different when it’s over?” Clients love to hear that one! But the question really is, for me, a matter of how best to use my time and talents in these years I’ve been given. I’d like to think that this company and the videos we produce are an extension of my own values. But I’m not sure if I’ve ever sat down and actually figured out exactly what those are.

That’s what this sabbatical is for. Stone Castle Pictures, as an idea, is still coming into focus. So we’re a production company — got that. But what, exactly, do we produce? Commercials? Documentaries? Television series? And more importantly, why? Maybe the vision won’t come all at once, but these at least are exciting questions to mull over — which I intend to do over the next several weeks… by the pool.