I Have Ideas

When I was in school, it was weird and unpopular to think outside of the box, along the seashore. But there I was.

It’s not something I learned to do. It’s how I came to the world.

Much like a left-handed kid learns to use right-handed scissors, I learned to figure out how other kids think. I learned to observe so that I could understand them. Knowing that was a survival skill for me. For them, the reverse was a gesture of friendship.

That was then.

In school it’s weird not to think like everyone else.In society, outside-of-the-box thinking is a prized commodity. . . . So long as you don’t do too much of it.

My experience of school, both as a student and as a teacher was not, in the most primary sense, geared toward developing new ideas. It was centered around teaching and learning what had already been done, without taking that next step to challenge the past. We rarely had time to talk about how it might have been done differently . . . or better.

Now the power of ideas is a strange and mystical.

People love ideas, but they somehow fear them. Ideas shift the balance of power. If you have one and I don’t, then you might gain control. People might seek you out. I might be pushed aside.

It’s sad we didn't spend more time making up new and exciting ideas in school. Then we wouldn’t fear ideas now. Then everyone would know how to have them.

I have ideas.

I have ideas about ideas.

I can imagine.

Ideas are the joy of thinking.

−me strauss Letting me strauss