Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Where Ideas Come From

I watched a remarkable TED talk video today with the author, Amy Tan. She talked about creativity and where ideas come from. If you have a few minutes to invest, I'd recommend watching this piece.

It resonated with me because writing a weekly column can be hard at times. Not the writing, but coming up with fresh ideas. Jilda gives me a lot of ideas because she's an idea factory. But sometimes ideas come by happenstance. I will smell, see, feel, or experience something that triggers a thought. I pick at the thought like a patch of itchy ivy on my arm. Sometimes the thread leads nowhere, but sometimes it turns into a story with substance.

The column for next Sunday came today as I walked. On the last lap, the sun finally made an appearance after hours of showers. When I rounded the corner of the barn, I noticed something I had forgotten. It was a half-gallon milk jar.

It's an antique and it triggered a thought about how times have changed. Stay tuned for the column this coming week.




10 comments:

  1. I can remember my parents buying milk in jars like this. I'd forgotten.

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  2. I remember seeing these for the first time. Before that the milk only came in quart bottles. With three boys we went through several of these a day.

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  3. Ideas...... Yes it is a 'brain originated' art. I sit at times awaiting inspiration. Tonight, it was impossible. My son is asleep on the couch, he dropped by leaving the flooding in Port Richey. The TV is wide open on the Olympics and and driving me nuts. We NEVER have the TV on except when he visits or a national disaster. LOL I have no idea what I have said. But I did finish your book. I loved it.

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  4. Anonymous9:55 PM

    ♫ If I could save time in a bottle...♫

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  5. Remember when we used to put mercury inside a bottle and coat it? We used to o many things in school and at home that are now so dangerous.

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  6. Ideas can be tricky and fickle animals can't they? (Love Amy Tan's writing.)

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  7. I remember those milk jugs. Times have changed. We used to return them to the store when we got milk. I often wish we had glass jugs now instead of plastic. At least now we can recycle the plastic ones.

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  8. Times have changed incredibly fast... my youngest daughter laughs when she hears about how I grew up with a cell/computer/DVR's ... my oldest grew up the same way until she was late into her teens... that is only 20 years ago... xox

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  9. Times have changed...we used to get the milk man who came always around 3pm and we would order milk but he carried bread as well. Now everything is plastic

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  10. Ideas truly come from anywhere!!! What a great milk jar!

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