It’s time to dig deep. Time to reach down inside and pull out something that wasn’t there just minutes before. Sometimes it’s easy. Other times it’s painful. The simple fact is it’s everywhere and nowhere. It is what you make it. It’s putting the pen to paper to see what happens. Once you get it you must embrace it. Run with it. Does it move? Does it speak? It’s but a moment captured. An image later to be analyzed and critiqued. Dismissed. Released. It’s gone.
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt
I never realized how ubiquitous the symbolism for an “idea moment” was until I considered its use in a historical context. The pre-twentieth century “ideas” don’t quite depict that flash moment of brilliance that we associate with turning on a light. Using the traditional incandescent bulb in today’s green-conscious world seems too anachronistic. Will adopting a revised symbol of the light bulb be necessary as advances in technology render the original unrecognizable? Add this to your list of things to lose sleep over.