About Beginning

Post 69:

            I’ve written and postulated my theories about endings, probably ad nauseum. How about beginnings? Let’s delve. Please? I love delving.

            I get a lot of questions about where ideas come from, where that inchoate idea or nascent little seed is found or seized upon.

            No idea.

            Okay, that’s not fair. I’ve got a few ideas. Here’s what I think, and since we’re delving, might as well do some thinking as well. I think to come up with a good idea, you need to come up with a hundred. This is a shot in the dark estimate, positive or negative depending on your standards.

            Point is, ideas need to be constant. Everything can be the source of an idea, so your brain needs to basically be a receiver. The world is transmitting. Turn that mess on and give a listen.

            This sounds like a formula for obsessive behavior. I’d have to say—yep. I don’t have a lot of admiration for artists that go down at the hands of substance abuse, but obsession—hey, we’ve all got soft spots. Of course you don’t want to go cutting your ear off; that’d be counterproductive anyway. Remember the listening thing…

            So this isn’t some piece of weak-ass advice that only applies to “artistic” types. Any pursuit. I hate to disagree with Mr. Iverson, but it’s all about practice. We need to practice our brains into a state of constant reception. Then you can get to a place where you’re separating the wheat from the chaff. Again, more practice. You’ll get a keen sense of what matters and what doesn’t, what needs emphasizing. How long does this take? Forever.

            We’re forever beginning. It’s the nature of things. For instance, I’ve got some laundry to do. Have to begin, and though I’d rather go into a cryogenic sleep, needs need doing. Turn on and turn it up. You never know what you can get tuned into.

            Cheers. See you after.