big, slow ideas

I was reading a post by Curt Rosengren over at Worthwhile Magazine's blog. I was happy to see that I was not the only person on earth to read Brenda Ueland (a very fiesty lady writer who wrote the book If You Want to Write in the 1930s, and it was just as relevant to me when I read it in college in the late 1980s.)
I'm also happy to see someone championing big, slow ideas, because I don't think that happens enough in this hyper-connected media-mad world...
Here's the entire post, since I think it's worth repeating:

Slow, big ideas
by Curt Rosengren on Creativity
"These people who are always briskly doing something and as busy as waltzing mice, they have little, sharp, staccato ideas, such as: "I see where I can make an annual cut of $3.47 in my meat budget." But they have no slow, big ideas."

- Brenda Ueland

I would venture to say that with our instant gratification culture, we tend to lean toward the little, sharp, staccato ideas. But it's the slow, big ideas that provide direction and a vision to move towards. Without those slow, big ideas, the staccato ideas end up being little more than random bursts of energy. Kind of a hamster wheel effect.

How do you slow down enough to give yourself time to cultivate the slow, big ideas? What helps to raise your focus to the bigger picture?

blog bog

Good Lord, has it really been almost three weeks since my last entry? A perfect storm of anti-blogging factors are at work/responsible for this:
--I had three articles due last weekend and had to focus on writing them early enough to have time to edit them, and on getting them out on time.
--Our main, new, shiny, 160 GB hard drive Gateway is in a coma. We think the motherboard is fried, but we don't know yet. It is under warranty, thank the silicon powers that be.
--I have just been really, really tired most work nights and busy catching up on sleep and social skills on the weekend.
On the bright side, my writing notebook fairly sizzles with the work I've been doing on the bus each day. I've got FAQs for Bright Livelihood's sales packet, a prospecting letter for several trade magazines (looking for ongoing assignments), and a couple of query letters for specific articles I'd like to write waiting on the paper tarmac, ready to fly into the computer. Which, unfortunately is comatose.
While the computer is down, I'm dividing my internet time between our old (6 years old, which is about 100 in PC years) computer, and Scooter's daughter's PC. It makes saving documents a quandary: which one will have connectivity long enough for me to edit this? Send it to an editor? Etc.
In other news, Scooter and I will be pirates for Halloween. Those who live near us or are relatives probably have come to realize that pirates are our default costume and pretty much what we plan to be every Halloween. The cutest costume prize goes to Austin, the bubbly grandson, though. He now has a Harley rider outfit, complete with orange skull cap. The outfit is long-sleeved and is orange, black and white, so he will sort of look like a gigantic Tootsie roll. :) Gotta love it.

Two thoughts for the day

Be a rebel--Be kind
A friend of mine, at the end of a retreat, offered a provocative reflection that intrigued and inspired me. After looking intensively at her inner experience for nine days of meditation and seeing many of her life choices in a brand new light, she commented, "If you really want to be a rebel, practice kindness."
There could be many wonderful extrapolations: "If you really want to be outrageous, be ethical." "If you want to go against the grain, be kindhearted." "If you want to live on your own terms, breaking out from expectation and external demands, practice love." "To be free, to be different, to be bold, be compassionate."
By Sharon Salzberg
Excerpted from The Force of Kindness.


Instructions
Give up the world; give up self; finally, give up God.
Find god in rhododendrons and rocks,
passers-by, your cat.
Pare your beliefs, your absolutes.
Make it simple; make it clean.
No carry-on luggage allowed.
Examine all you have
with a loving and critical eye, then
throw away some more.
Repeat. Repeat.
Keep this and only this:what your heart beats loudly for
what feels heavy and full in your gut.
There will only be one or two
things you will keep,
and they will fit lightly
in your pocket.

By Sheri Hostetler, from the anthology A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry