Drifting

I was sitting at my desk the other day with a characteristically blank look on my face. Anne walked by and asked, “What are you doing?”

I said, “Nothing.”

“You’re actually doing absolutely nothing?” she asked. “Is that even possible?”

“Well, since you seem to be rather insistent about it, I’m drifting,” I said.

“Drifting?”

“Yes,” I said. “Did you see where that last thought went?”

“No.”

“Neither did I,” I replied. “And that’s exactly the point. I had the thought. It went somewhere. Now I have to find it.”

“What’ll you do with it?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “First, I have to find it. Then I have to decide what to do with it. Do you see how this works?”

“No.”

“Okay,” I said. “What do you do when you pick up a paint brush?”

“I don’t.”

“Then what do you do?” I asked.

“I pick up a pencil.”

“How do you paint with a pencil,” I asked, with a characteristically blank look on my face.

“I don’t,” she said. (She didn’t say moron.) “I write something for inspiration on the canvas before I start to paint.”

“Then what happens?”

“I have no idea until I put a brush in some paint and put the paint on the canvas,” she said. “Then I follow the first strokes until it becomes what I’m inspired to make it.”

“Don’t look now,” I said, “but that’s drifting.”

“You’re a moron,” she said.

I made no attempt to argue.

Originally Published on https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/category/lifecolumns/notes-to-self/

Mark O'Brien Writer, Blogger

I'm the founder and principal of O'Brien Communications Group (obriencg.com) and the co-founder and President of EinSource (einsource.com). I'm a lifelong writer. My wife, Anne, and I have two married sons and four grandchildren. I'm having the time of my life.