As the midterm election season ends, I’d like to ponder on the concept of ideas – as in some are good and some are bad. I think we’ve seen plenty of bad ones in political campaigning, but the truth is that we’re all subject to both whims of brilliance and whims of “what the heck was I thinking?” A brain is a wonderful thing when fully utilized. It creates the entire world as we know it. The trick is activating the functions of wisdom and discernment to let us know what’s brilliant, and what’s best left alone.
Before you say it, I know that some people are better at the wisdom/discernment thing than others, but my point here is that none of us hit the mark 100% of the time.
Case in point: Writing Fracture in August instead of waiting to do it now for National Novel Writing Month (as I originally considered) was a good idea. I had mixed feelings on whether it was a good idea to write it so soon after Rick’s father passed away, but looking back, I see that not only was it good for me, but it was good for the story as well. In fact, I just checked my planning notes, and it came out a lot better than I planned. I don’t think I could have written that particular novel if I waited until now to do it, and I can see that writing while the inspiration was running was the best thing for Fracture and perhaps the entire Earthside Trilogy. Now I have a great start to the story and a better base to work off of than I planned.
However, my decision to not cut my hair anymore wasn’t so brilliant. I learned this in Washington D.C. when it became apparent that conditioning treatments and repair shampoos can only do so much for split ends before they become a problem. I fought with my hair, I struggled with my hair, I was appalled at a picture they took at the conference that caught me from behind when I saw how it actually looked, and I immediately came home and got 3 inches cut off. The funny thing is, nobody noticed but Rick. Either people didn’t notice it, or they were too nice to say anything. Or they were curious to see how long it took me to realize it. It doesn’t matter. The point is that the lesson is learned – I need haircuts every now and then, even if I don’t care for them any more than the birds care for a wing and nail trim.
I think (or at least hope) that in most cases the good ideas outweigh the bad ones to tip the scales in a favorable way. We want to think that we have more good ideas than bad ones, or at least that we learn from the bad ideas and go on to make better ones in the future. That’s the goal, anyway. Nobody’s perfect, but hopefully we learn from our failings to become better people. Or to make new mistakes, at least.
I suppose my point is that the political ads that made us nauseous over the past few weeks probably did so because we realized, at least at a subconscious level, that the flaws we saw in others were reflecting back on us in a subtle way. Politicians aren’t perfect; it’s just easier to see and scrutinize their imperfections. Because face it, we all put on our best behavior when we want something, and revert back to our true selves once we get it (or don’t get it and realize we wasted our time putting on an act). OK, maybe not as bad as politicians, but you know what I mean. And we all slip up with bad ideas, at least every once in a while. We all need a measure of grace, and you tend to get back what you give.
That’s all today. Take care, and have a great rest of the week.
Bye!
Before you say it, I know that some people are better at the wisdom/discernment thing than others, but my point here is that none of us hit the mark 100% of the time.
Case in point: Writing Fracture in August instead of waiting to do it now for National Novel Writing Month (as I originally considered) was a good idea. I had mixed feelings on whether it was a good idea to write it so soon after Rick’s father passed away, but looking back, I see that not only was it good for me, but it was good for the story as well. In fact, I just checked my planning notes, and it came out a lot better than I planned. I don’t think I could have written that particular novel if I waited until now to do it, and I can see that writing while the inspiration was running was the best thing for Fracture and perhaps the entire Earthside Trilogy. Now I have a great start to the story and a better base to work off of than I planned.
However, my decision to not cut my hair anymore wasn’t so brilliant. I learned this in Washington D.C. when it became apparent that conditioning treatments and repair shampoos can only do so much for split ends before they become a problem. I fought with my hair, I struggled with my hair, I was appalled at a picture they took at the conference that caught me from behind when I saw how it actually looked, and I immediately came home and got 3 inches cut off. The funny thing is, nobody noticed but Rick. Either people didn’t notice it, or they were too nice to say anything. Or they were curious to see how long it took me to realize it. It doesn’t matter. The point is that the lesson is learned – I need haircuts every now and then, even if I don’t care for them any more than the birds care for a wing and nail trim.
I think (or at least hope) that in most cases the good ideas outweigh the bad ones to tip the scales in a favorable way. We want to think that we have more good ideas than bad ones, or at least that we learn from the bad ideas and go on to make better ones in the future. That’s the goal, anyway. Nobody’s perfect, but hopefully we learn from our failings to become better people. Or to make new mistakes, at least.
I suppose my point is that the political ads that made us nauseous over the past few weeks probably did so because we realized, at least at a subconscious level, that the flaws we saw in others were reflecting back on us in a subtle way. Politicians aren’t perfect; it’s just easier to see and scrutinize their imperfections. Because face it, we all put on our best behavior when we want something, and revert back to our true selves once we get it (or don’t get it and realize we wasted our time putting on an act). OK, maybe not as bad as politicians, but you know what I mean. And we all slip up with bad ideas, at least every once in a while. We all need a measure of grace, and you tend to get back what you give.
That’s all today. Take care, and have a great rest of the week.
Bye!
RSS Feed