Unwritten

When you write a blog entry every day, everything you see or hear becomes potential source material – a chance remark by a friend, an evocative phrase you happened upon in a book, or a shadow within the smile of a stranger that reminds you of something your mom told you one summer evening when you were seven. After a while, you realize that every day is filled to the brim with fascinating and wondrous possibilities of things to write about. When taken all together, the daily opportunities add up to far more, in fact, than a mere mortal ever could write down within a twenty four hour period.

Buf of course not all blog opportunities are equal. Some are merely amusing – the Oreo cookies of blogging. You know that if you go there, everyone will have a good laugh, but there really won’t be much inside other than tasty sugar creme. Other ideas, however, are quite deep – they resonate with passions or beliefs that have been stirring within you, sometimes for years, sometimes without you ever having recognized them until that moment.

Of course I look for the latter topics, when I can spot them – the occasional hearty meals that I can tuck away between the daily offerings of sweet tasty verbal desserts. There is that delicious moment when I know – I just know – that the thought that has just flickered into my brain is going to lead to a deep and satisfying discussion about something that is truly worth talking about.

But the strange thing is that quite often, even after having had this kind of epiphany, I arrive at home and realize that I have absolutely no recollection of what that wonderful idea was. It’s gone, simply gone. It goes up on that shelf where we put all the things that got away, where we keep our encounters with roads not taken – kisses not kissed, childhood dreams forgotten, poems unwritten, and truths never revealed.

Today I had such an epiphany, but it is lost now. I know I had it – I can still remember the moment when I had the thought, while I was on the subway platform waiting for the F train, and even now l can nearly taste the sense of elation and discovery. But I didn’t write it down, and now it has gone away. Perhaps somebody who took a later train will come upon it, sense it in the air, and will somehow pick it up. Maybe that person has a blog, and they will send the idea out into the world, where one day I will read it.

I am quite sure I will recognize it when I see it.

5 thoughts on “Unwritten”

  1. I always have pen and paper with me. I’m just generally either too lazy – or too caught up in conversation – to use them. On the bright side, I got at least this one cool blog post out of it! 🙂

  2. I was kind of hoping that the post was satirical, and that the thought was the feeling of loss if you couldn’t share an epiphany …

    Me, I make sure every phone I get has one-touch voice record. Especially when driving there are lots of times when things are so clear but fade through distration of other matters (like the brake lights ahead).

    Dreams are great too. Record everything you think of once you wake from those crazy idea dreams. Catch the magic …

  3. Aren’t thoughts like seeds? Some need just the right conditions to sprout (right conditions != handy pen and paper)… I am sure the wonderful idea you had is resting now in the soil of your subconscious mind, awaiting the right moment. Hope we will all enjoy it one day!

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