I’ve been kinda quiet here lately.<\/p>\n
That’s a shame. I like to write on my blog. But my life has been somewhat exciting, and that doesn’t always leave time for writing.<\/p>\n
Isn’t that funny? When life is most interesting, you don’t have time to stop and tell about it.<\/p>\n
I remember I kept a diary as a teenager. I would oh-so-faithfully write down everything that happened or occurred to me. Volumes, pages and pages of my life would be documented.<\/p>\n
I soon grew incredibly sick of writing down all the nothing that occurred in my life. I thought to myself “I am spending so much time writing down what I’m doing that I am not doing anything.”<\/p>\n
I was young and had no basis for comparison. It did not occur to me that I had no life. I just had directionless ambition for a life.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I am blessed to have a life now. And that life has been getting in the way of my art–the art of this blog.<\/p>\n
You know, I’d love to fill this blog with delightful bits of interesting, useful and enlightening paragraphs. Some of the bits are those things.<\/p>\n
Some of them aren’t.<\/p>\n
I suppose that anything i write is useful to me. It is useful to write, it is useful to express my thoughts, for my own edification, even if no one else really cares.<\/p>\n
So, I do write.<\/p>\n
But I would really like to be better at expressing my thoughts and impressions in such a way that others can benefit. Sure, I don’t mind being self-centered. That’s fine. But it is more fun when you can bring others along on the trip.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, though, when I am at my most creative and original, when I am most inspired, I seem to lose connection with others.<\/p>\n
I am in love with originality. I reach for it whenever I can. I am thrilled when I find a new perspective, or a new way to express something difficult to grok.<\/p>\n
It is HARD! We struggle, I struggle to understand more about how people workd and how the world works. WHY are things the way they are? WHY do things turn out the way they do?<\/p>\n
Once in a while, I catch a glimpse. A flash of what I know to be the bigger picture hits the retinas of my understanding.<\/p>\n
Hallelujah! Tell everyone and throw a party! I just got a little bit more of what it’s all about!<\/p>\n
Except…not everyone wants to come to the party. I want to share the gift I recieved, but it turns out that people are not ready to listen.<\/p>\n
What?! I thought we were all doing this together. I thought that this was we were all working on. Understanding, enlightenment, all of that.<\/p>\n
So why don’t you want it when it comes available? I want to share, and you don’t want any?<\/p>\n
Why not?<\/p>\n
Maybe other people really aren’t looking for enlightenment. Maybe they prefer dim light and stupefied complacency.<\/p>\n
Or<\/p>\n
Maybe I’m just kidding myself. Maybe the revelation I think i have recieved is not amazing. Maybe I am stupid, and this insight that I astonishes me is as ordinary as a rock.<\/p>\n
Or<\/p>\n
Maybe I’ve been walking on a slow incline. As I work towards understanding more and more, my atennae are picking up bits and pieces and gathering and re-forming the information that I get. Maybe the accumulation of knowledge has been a slow process, one requiring diligence and time.<\/p>\n
Therefore, my flash of brilliance took place at a mountaintop. I’ve been working towards it harder than I realized.<\/p>\n
When I go to share it, I find that I am already being a geek and using advanced examples that others don’t understand.<\/p>\n
It’s like I’ve been following a train of thought pretty far down the tracks, and I’m way down the line.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, when I’m trying to explain something, I get frustrated. I feel like snapping my fingers and saying “Hey! Keep up! Pay attention, we haven’t even gotten to the main point yet.”<\/p>\n
But then, who am I to demand that kind of attention? If others don’t want to know, they won’t pay attention.<\/p>\n
I know some nerdy people who know a hell of a lot about certain rather narrow subjects. They dove deep to get to what they wanted to know. About the inner workings of physics, or the inner workings of a computer, or the relationships in telecommunications networks.<\/p>\n
And that means they get to a point where they can only talk to each other about those particular subjects. No one else understands them.<\/p>\n
I often feel like that. Like I’ve jumped into a body of knowledge, and I’ve gotten far enough that it’s hard to talk to others about it without a LOT of background explanation.<\/p>\n
Except…where are my colleagues?<\/p>\n
Poets and philosophers are not honored in this computer age.<\/p>\n
Original thought is not prized. Not unless you can patent it.<\/p>\n
And you know what? I understand that. I am a deeply practical person. I understand the value of a good meal. “Good” meaning reliably recurring.<\/p>\n
But I also understand the value of an original thought; it is at the same time the most selfish and altruistic act.<\/p>\n
For what is more personally gratifying than discovery?<\/p>\n
And by what means will humanity and the world improve itself other than through the adoption of new ideas?<\/p>\n
I wrestle with my creativity. I am electrified and frustrated by turns. And sometimes at the same time.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it would be easier if my talents lay in more tangible directions. If I were inspired to be a plumber, for example.<\/p>\n
But that is not the case. Here I am, striving with Ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve been kinda quiet here lately. That’s a shame. I like to write on my blog. But my life has been somewhat exciting, and that doesn’t always leave time for writing. Isn’t that funny? When life is most interesting, you … Continue reading