I’ve been amazed at how much has come to mind to write about in recent days. Everyday I think of several new ideas. Not on purpose or by choice. My thoughts just seem to go that way. Often the ideas begin to develop further and sentences and paragraphs form mentally. I usually put the thoughts aside and hope that I might remember to bring them back off the shelf later and let them grow. Sometimes I remember them and sometimes I don’t. What I find is the discipline or energy to sit down later and actually start writing does not come easy. This may be no great revelation to any one else, but to me it’s somewhat surprising. Not that I thought writing would be easy. On the contrary, I believe it can be quite difficult. The surprising part is how much I think about it but don’t do it. There can’t be many waking hours go by that I haven’t thought of either some idea or wished I had the discipline to begin typing.
I need to find a way to hold on to these ideas. How do I put them on a shelf temporarily and then pull them out later. How can a few thoughts that developed from a statement heard or an observation made be put aside and then brought back out and understood at a later time. When they occur, they are in the moment, ready to grow right then. To put them aside may kill them altogether. At the very least they are wounded and handicapped. How do writers of philosophy keep up with all the ideas and notions that come their way? There must be a method or system to it. How else is it explained? There are too many people writing their previous thoughts for it to be talent alone. The chances that everyone who writes with some amount of validity is doing it on talent alone are remote. Is there an idea freezer that can keep them in suspended animation until the energy comes to record them. Is the freezer organized so that the thoughts can be accessed easily and with little effort? Or is more like the one at our house where you have to look through all the frozen vegetables before you find the frozen fish you cleaned 6 months ago? Can they get freezer burn and never be eatable again? Is there a writers microwave with an automatic defrost button that has preset functions to nuke them only as long as needed depending on their category? Once frozen, will they really ever taste the same again?
I want to write more, but I’m having trouble. It’s too easy to find ways to be lazy and let my mind just be entertained by Direct TV. I mean this is only my 3rd entry to this blog in the three weeks since I started it. Actually it’s my 4th, but I tripped and fell over the delete button the other night and erased most of what I had written about a comment made on a airplane. I just gave up for the night so it never got posted.
And that’s kinda what I’m talking (writing) about. I wrote what I thought was a great article about a comment a young lady made on an airplane earlier that day. I was really in an element as I was explaining how one small statement by her set off several paragraphs in me. It was good if I do say so myself. But when I lost my footing and erased 75% of the text and was not able to retrieve it, I just gave up. How could I duplicate what had just happened? I was on a role and I fell off. I couldn’t just get up and do it again. I was in a moment and now the moment was gone. It would have been like trying to remember my remembrances of a momentary event. All my energy just got sapped out of me at that misstep. I couldn’t get it back and didn’t really want to try.
And now I’m tired. It’s been a long day and I need some rest. Now if I can just watch where I’m stepping and not stub my toe on the delete button.
Good Night All
