My favorite professor in college told me that genius comes to us in the shower. It a strange paradox...that you would come up with genius ideas when you have no paper, no pen, and your hands are too wet to write it down. Still, there was a great lesson in his simple statement. What he really meant was that genius comes to us when we least expect it; when are minds are allowed to wander to where they will; when we are unbound from our inhibitions and commitments. For a long time I took this advice to heart and carried a little notebook in my purse, just in case some genius came to me. When I was prepared, I had the most amazing thoughts, and I was able to record them before they turned to gold and became dust. As time moved on, I got out of the habit of carrying a notebook. I still had moments of pure genius, but I was unprepared to capture them. They moved away from me and on to someone else. They were lost to me and now have become inconsequential because they were unused, unwritten.
Last week I had a glimpse of genius. I was sitting at a stop light. It was dusk and I was watching the sunset. I had in that moment the best idea for a story. Its characters and scene practically unfolded in the colors of the sky. I knew how to start and the line of plot seemed real and obvious. We're talking Pulitzer Prize winning idea. Unfortunately, I had nothing to write on. I was sure I would remember, but when I got home I was immediately over taken with other parts of life. The evening passed before I remembered there was something I was supposed to remember. By then it was midnight and the idea at the stop light had long since passed on its way.
I wonder how many ideas have been lost because they weren't written down. My own number is depressingly large. When I think about what I could have written, what I have missed, I am filled with a deep sense of regret. I must carry a notebook...
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