I get my best ideas while running and then completely forget them.
I run with two other guys at noon on Mon, Wed, Fri. But I missed yesterday and can't tomorrow so I went alone today. Down the hill to Folsom Boulevard and back, about 3 1/2 miles of agonized self-punishment, pounding the concrete that winds between piles of ancient river rock and new half-empty office buildings. It was about 95F and my arm brace got all soppy.
I'm a reasonably good runner. Have the physique and all. What slows me down is my brain. It's too god damn heavy. If I make the mistake of letting it think something, I slow way down. Today I jogged up the hill, dripping sweat and grunts, and dictated silently an entire conversation. It was pretty good: The guy who'd been running the telegraph office in Hangtown met for the first time his counterpart in Sacramento, and found out the guy he'd replaced himself with up there didn't know Morse code, but the line was running smoothly anyway because (unknown to the Sac guy until now) the autistic black kid he'd left behind in the emergency was doing all the translations while the replacement took all the credit, and meanwhile he needed to find out if anyone had come by with a negro woman prisoner and what steamboat were they taking to San Francisco, and yes I'll find out, come back in an hour or so, and and and ... The reality was a lot more interesting but alas it's gone now. Nor will I spend this time reconstructing it, after all, I'm at work here!
But once at home: Gone. Inspiration: Gone. All requisite looseness of mind and spirit: Gone.
Iono, I could get me one a them digital voice recorders like reporters use, strap it to my arm. Cept I don't talk. Talking slows me down even more. I'm a mouth-breather when I run, what can I say.
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Don
I'm too serious
Tell me, tell, me, if you think you know
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5 comments:
Love this!
Since it happens to me, too (not while running because I do *not* have the physique for that), I'll tell you what I do.
I COUNT on it still being there somewhere in my brain. It's percolating even if I've forgotten it. And if I write a lot, sometimes it pops up and is found again!
Sounds like a real common malady, Don. I do it with music. Sometimes I not only lose the spirit, but later totally forget what I stumbled upon. The good news is that when it does come back (if it does) it is better, makes more sense. If it never comes back, then it was more like a dream that only made sense in its own context and couldn't stand the light of day.
Once in awhile, though, I wonder if that stuff was really, really good.
Oh yeah, didn't this come up in MW once or twice? You're not supposed to tell us your idea--you're supposed to write it.
No wonder I felt vaguely in error as I wrote that out.
My hope and intention is once I'm done with a video editing project that I've been doing every night since April sometime and we're back from the Burn and my father is all moved and the kid has moved to Irvine and what else god I hope that's it, then I can set aside a couple hours every night and get going on this thing.
Yeah, well, whenever I think of MW, I feel vaguely in error. Another common malady, I suppose.
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