Follow-up Quote 2 to
Spirit of Inspiration Newsletter,
"Capturing that Burning Idea".
This page can be found at this url.
http://humanityquest.com/themes/inspiration/Newsletter/2003-06-19/Follow-upQuote2.asp
Continuing with quotes about capturing your inspirations.
The following is from one of the British Romantic poet.
|
Samuel Taylor
Coleridge |
|
If one thought leads to another, so often does it blot out another. This I
find, when having lain musing on my sofa, a number of interesting thoughts
having suggested themselves, I cannot conquer my bodily indolence and rise to
record them in these books, alas! my only confidants. The first
thought leads me on indeed to new ones; but nothing but the faint memory of
having had them remains of the others, which had been even more interesting
to me. I do not know, whether this be an idiosyncrasy, a peculiar
disease, of my particular memory- but so it is with me. My thoughts
crowd each other to death. |
I also lay back on the futon sofa here in my home office
to relax and let my mind wander, so I enjoyed hearing that Samuel used that
approach. I find it one of the best ways for me to let the
inspiration rise to the surface, is by laying back on the sofa, relaxing
and seeing what comes up. Seems that Albert Einstein was a fan of
the sofa as well.
| On the other hand, although I have a regular
work schedule, I take time to go for long walks on the beach so that I can
listen to what is going on inside my head. If my work isn't going well, I
lie down in the middle of a workday and gaze at the ceiling while I listen
and visualize what goes on in my imagination. |
Albert Einstein |
The problem is, it's easy to enjoy the
pleasurable state of letting the ideas float past, but then they're gone.
Sitting at the computer and writing and capturing them seems like hard work to
me.
As I think about it, it seems that the work aspect comes from the translation of the
inspirations into a coherent written form. It needs to be edited and reedited,
checked for spelling, coherence, mistakes, etc. That takes the fun
out of the inspiration.
Samuel and the
Inspiration of Dreams
Samuel Coleridge started using opium
for medical purposes but became addicted. It is said he wrote one of his famous
poems,
Kubla
Khan in a drug-inspired stupor.
Supposedly, he took opium and went to sleep. After 3 hours he awoke from a dream
with the complete image of the poem. However, he received a visitor and the
distraction made him forget all but eight or ten lines of his inspiration.
Samuel should have listened
to John Locke who advises capturing those ideas.
|
John Locke
Sir Godfrey Kneller |
|
The thoughts that come often unsought, and
as it were, drop into the mind, are
commonly the most valuable of any we have, and therefore should be secured,
because they seldom return again.
Letter to Samuel Bold, 16 May
1699
|
Talking about Dreams, I will be attending the "20th Annual
International Conference of the
Association for the Study of Dreams" this weekend which is being held close by
in Berkeley. See the following link for more about the conference.
http://www.asdreams.org/2003/index.htm
I'll be looking for information about inspiration that
originates out of dreams. That will be the topic for the newsletter as well.
cheers
Edwin
