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Friday July 12, 2019

A bit of this, a bit of something else …

What makes art?

What makes a good idea, a good combo, a good fit of bits and pieces, or ideas, or people …?

When I don’t know what I want, when I don’t know what I want to do next – who to talk with or explore next, I find myself sitting at this keyboard in hopes fingertips and my process will deliver some good ideas.

I might start by staring out a window one morning, pad in hand, but given my propensity for spilling coffee on notes, misplacing ‘little tidbits I write and save’ together with atrocious handwriting – even when I go slowly it’s pretty bad. I think it comes from thinking faster than I can write, so typing has proven my best way of capturing ideas. I used to try audio recordings but wasted too much time transcribing and I’ve not graduated to voice activated software.

I like being able to move things around on my page, like moving thoughts around in my head like rearranging furniture in a room …

If I had a partner I would have someone to be my sounding board – not available on demand, but frequently. Aside from the absence of ‘conversation on demand’, the flip side of that coin is ‘listening on demand’. To have someone in the next room who would happily list to and engage with me on the great idea that just floated into my head would be great, but the converse of having to stop my writing or work on a project because that person came into my space and wanted me to respond to their need for conversation on demand equates to having to listen on demand for me. And that, I’m certain of it, is why I’m still single. I know I grant myself all kinds of excuses of why the charming lovely women I meet won’t do, it’s that subtle combo of someone who is an equal but who will also expect/want and mutually want to be left alone to work on whatever their passion is as well. Sure, she should have great social skills too, great bedroom skills and enjoy sharing cooking roles with me as well – I cook, she cleans. Just joking, but only partly.

Returning to my point, I want a partner/mate who is all over me intellectually and emotionally – and I her, but who wants/gives/needs creative space whenever required (and mutually respected) between 5AM and 10PM daily. Someone who isn’t full of questions when I’m pacing or out walking or at my keyboard at 3AM, arguably the best time sometimes to let fly with ideas is middle of the night where my only companions are stiff breeze through my window and hot coffee right there next to my mouse-pad.

Ah, what pleasure – but then when I’m done, I want to just flop into bed next to someone warm or move into another room for social rejoinder-ing without need to disclose every inane element of each other’s day before talking about something truly interesting.

That’s it, really. I want someone who wants to talk about something truly interesting.

It helps if both of us think it is truly interesting, but sometimes one passionate advocate is enough …

 
 
 
     
 
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