Day Four

I am cheating, a little.
I have a journaling database in which I record anything. It occurs to me now that I should stick to my original design and write my blog into the datbase first and then copy it over into this blog. Whatever happens to be complicated -I'll go there.
Getting back to the cheating, the following is my "artist's" way entry from November 5 2007.

Fascinating how quickly the mind starts up in the morning. I set the alarm for 6:55, lazed after, got the second alarm at 7:20, then the radio came on. The speaker on the show with Marcus was a guy from Science North, Franco, whose voice was almost identical to TK's. But as the conversation progressed, I could tell that the details were slightly different. But then I thought that Tim might be hiding the details to protect the innocent. Even when he said 'my wife' , I thought it was a ruse, for that was how convinced I was that it was T speaking.
So it does not take long before my mind starts on the ferris wheel or merry go round - amazing how easy it is to slip in to constant mind chatter. It's like being on auto pilot. It matters little what is or was being thought - for indeed in this moment, only 20 minutes or so later, I cannot recall what it was I was thinking. I am still doing this as I eat my cereal while wrting this exercise.
I need to know how many words will fill this window so I can gauge my morning progress. 750 words is the target, but then I am thinking that I should only target 30 minutes. Or how about setting minimums - 30 minutes, or 750 words. I should think that I can write 750 words in less than 30 minutes. If not then I need to learn to type faster because I can certainly think more than 750 words in a minute. Part of the process here is to purge the system. Let it all out. Set the mind straight for the remainder of the day by letting go of the need to be distracted in thought. Part of the process is the get I the habit of writing. ( I need to tell C about my morning ritual vis-à-vis , these morning writings - recall that I did this in the spring of 2006 - I still have the papers and would like at some point to enter their contents into this burgeoning database.)
Clearing the mind is the simplest more effective way to being creative. This reminds me of the story of the master carver who described his masterpiece in terms of being chosen himself - the tree chose hime, the tools chose him, the image chose hom, and so on.
Now a critical aspect of this process is to have alone time - no distractions - as I just had as Kelsey needed the light bulbs replaced in her room - Therefore, for when the kids are here I need to be up at least an hour before them.
I had a talk with B last night and got her to give me a writing assignment. I said I'll write 750 words or so - give me a topic - she said tomatoes. So my challenge is to write 750 words on tomatoes. The question for me is do I write completely off the cuff or do I do some research. I started to read wikipedia and then discovered that that kind of reading discourages imagination. In order to train or allow my imagination, I need only to let it out, to let it go, to free it from the bonds of this ego.
This ego of mine is deathly scared of my imagination. For it has controlled it for the purpose of keeping itself alive. A free and simple imagination is the death of the ego. As I write this, there is an urge to stop when in fact this is when the juices start. I need to keep going with this for as long as I can sustain this - no judgement, no nothing - just free mind letting out -I realize that I need better keying equipment. My shoulders are feeling the strain and so are my wrists - this is definitely ergonomically challenged.

Back to today - in April 2009. I never wrote about tomatoes. Stay tuned.