The Idea of Writing (and Employment Brief)

I routinely jump out of bed and run to my desk after ten minutes of attempted unconsciousness. It could be two in the morning and I’ll still make the effort. If I do not, I may lie there an hour more.

Excitement about tomorrow’s events, a quiet environment for thoughts to float around, unlimited time to develop and brainstorm. Imagining, visualizing, planning. It doesn’t matter if the plans are realistic or not. Sometimes the most intriguing ideas are the ones that seem stupidest upon waking.
What matters is that the ideas will badger me, lead me further and further from my pursuit of unconsciousness.

How could they not? My own ideas of how my life could actually be? They are far better than the most wonderful sleeping dream, for they provide a realistic illusion that doesn’t disappear with an alarm.

So I write. I can deal with the issue later. Write more about it another day. Turn it into a column.
And in doing so, the idea becomes more solid. If I don’t write an important idea down, I likely won’t remember it. And if I don’t write more about it, explain it in logical form with clear structure so that it makes sense to others, the idea will become lost in practice.

What is the practical message here? Write ideas down all the time. And then clear them up and make them presentable to others through solid logic. If you do this, your dreams won’t get shot down before the dreams have time to develop. Hasn’t this happened to you? A perceivably great idea shot down in flames (ain’t it a shame?) because you proposed it -- with all accompanying flaws -- before developing it?
Hurts, doesn’t it.

You think up a charity organization that would distribute portable huts to the homeless, structures easily erected and taken down. So you tell your friend.
And then you listen: “Wait… where are you going to get the funding? You want these people to get used to being homeless? You want to fill the streets and fields with ragged tents? Don’t you need some non-profit license for that? What about shelters that already exist? How is your idea different? Who is going to make the huts?
Why do you and your ill-conceived ideas hate the poor?”

Writing is a fundamental tool, if only seen by your own eyes, to clarify and structure ideas so that they have a fundamental foundation. Isn’t that the purpose of a college essay, business plan, or resume? To explain a hypothesis, to show potential investors your idea’s reliability, to reflect on who you are professionally.
Otherwise, you could tweet your professor your thesis and obtain your grade.

How do you show others all the ideas you have? Explain in clear prose. That’s one reason I am writing this column.

All parts of life become easier to talk about and clearer to think about.

Be Good,
Enjoy Life,
Yaffe

EMPLOYMENT UPDATE BRIEF:

Apparently, online applications take just as long or longer than the in-person screenings I had at the coffee shop. I received two calls today from different companies. I am excited to know that I am not completely forgotten! 

I feel I deserved it from my job-search project I undertook today, though today's searching and today's calls are completely unrelated. 

I went out and drove to local wineries, inquiring about open jobs. Beautiful landscape out there, rolling hills. Private enterprises, some family owned and operated, with jobs ranging from agriculture, to food service, to tasting room monitoring, to management and paperwork.

I worked up the courage, disregarded the 'Open For Business' times, and asked about job openings (or 'employment opportunities' at the highest class establishment). At a few places, I couldn't find anyone. At another I was kindly directed to their website, an employee saying that she had indeed obtained employment in this manner. A sociable office manager of another said there might be some part-time work coming up (and also noted that her son is at UC Davis now, my recent 'alma mater'), and an owner at another location suggested I call one of his managers about a recent opening. So, there is much potential in this arena should other paths fall short. Life is good.