Gatewood Press

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Out on the Edge

I had an insight yesterday. Shared it. Got a good response. Lots of compliments. Terrific ego boost. I would like to follow up with something equally thrilling today. There’s only one problem, the blinding flash of light that accompanies an insight has the same affect on your mind as it does on your eyes. It’s hard to see afterwards, everything looks dull and opaque, and the harder you try the less you can see.

I suppose there are lots of analogies. The great song. The great book. The great poem. The great building. You name it. The follow-ups were seldom as good, except in rare cases where they were actually better, and in that case you could argue that maybe the first insight wasn’t all that terrific although usually it just means the person is good at having creative insights and is really someone special, an outlier perhaps.

At my age, I’m pretty sure I’m just a guy who had an insight that resonated with his friends and that’s cool. Because I’m only out lying about in my house, but it’s nice to have friends who appreciate what you do no matter what it is you do, as long as it’s legal, especially if it makes them feel good, which yesterday’s insight did, apparently. Make people feel good. And that makes me feel good, because Lord knows there’s enough disagreeable stuff in the world to go around several time over, and it’s nice, once or twice a year, to be able to provide a bit of an antidote to some of the misery.