Post Blackout

This was a long week. Finley started teething (THREE, I repeat, THREE teeth at a time), so I cheated. Every day. I watched an hour of TV while holding her every day, so it wasn't a COMPLETE media blackout. On Thursday, I woke up thinking, Ugh, I hate Saturdays. Friday I woke up wondering what time Beans and Brews closed on Sundays. It was a long week.

I spent a lot of time sitting, listening to that "silence" I was craving, counting seconds... Some days were fantastic. Other days I just wanted to Google things to do when you're bored and watch Bill Maher reruns.

I thought I'd want to be creative, but I felt deadened creatively--I think for me, at least, that whirlwind creativity found in the media feeds my creativity. Ideas feed my ideas.

Sometimes, I think you do need to silence the voices with something dull and crass. Literally listening to my thoughts was at first weird. It sounded like it would just be a completely metaphorical thing to do, but then something switched and I physically listened to them, as if it's a courtroom and I could literally transcribe it all.

Silence is terrifying and liberating.

I think, in our era, we are so incredibly blessed to be surrounded by creativity. Number one on most peoples' bucket lists is to write a book. Technology both stifles us and encourages us creatively.

The minute I turned on the media full-blast, I felt overwhelmed. Suddenly I wanted to be thin, gorgeous, witty, and productive. I saw things I wanted to be, do, become. I felt lazy and inefficient, like nothing is ever enough.

Final verdict: very highly recommended experiment. I'll probably do mini-blackouts weekly. Maybe someday I'll work up to a year, just to clear my mind. Thank you, Einstein, for inspiring me to listen more closely to everything rolling around in my head.

Man of the Week

Albert Einstein was a marvelous, funny, thoughtful man who, I admit, I have never before been interested in knowing about. "I know, I know," I'd always think whenever they brought up Einstein. "E equals MC squared. Yeah, yeah."

But the more I learn about him, the more I am fascinated.

He was a romantic...

"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves."

He was delightfully blunt...

"If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor."

He was a magnificent scientist...

"When you are courting a nice girl, an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second seems like an hour. That's relativity."

...But he was a realist...

"It's not that I'm so smart; it's that I stay with problems longer."

He was a pacifist...

"You cannot simulaneously prevent and prepare for war."

He was insightful...

"People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results."

He was humorous...

"The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat."

...And he was genius when it came to understanding the creative mind. Einstein would take long walks on the beach alone weekly, in solitude and quiet, to listen to the chatter in his mind. This is where his greatest theories came from--giving the thoughts in his brain time to speak to him.

"I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity."

And to understand more about this concept, I am trying this theory on for one week.

Think about it. How afraid are we of silence? I'm the first to step forward and admit that I tend to get in the mindset of thinking if I'm not plugged in, in touch, online, updated frequently, then it's time wasted. I forget how satisfying it can be to just hear the whirr of electricity, birds chirping, the sound of air...

So for one week, I'll stay unplugged from the computer, iPods, television, movies, and limit my reading time. No radio while driving. No background television while I'm getting sleepy. No passing Facebook checks when I have a spare few seconds. I'm interested in listening to the chatter in my own head, hear what language is spoken in there, giving voice to ideas and thoughts.

I'll be back to report on this experiment in one week. Sunday, August 8th, I'll be back. In the meantime, I have Mix Tape posts scheduled ahead of time to continue my 100 days of music saga.

See you with some extra deep thoughts next week!