Swing

Where do pendulums come to rest?

The better question to ask is why I can't move past the pendulum metaphor...

The problem with feeling about things rather than thinking about them is that I find myself stewing over issues without really arriving anything concrete. In the past, when the people around me arrive at the table with carefully-considered action plans, expecting me to do the same, I've got nothing that I can articulate. It's not that I'm wishy-washy or that I'm unwilling to make decisions, but that I've tended to move in a different way.

Minds exist in a clear, angular world. They identify problems and come up with plans to overcome them. Hearts dwell in that foggy place between things and actions. Hearts can see problems, but the solutions they come up with aren't so much solutions as gradual, perhaps unconscious, and indirect changes.

... which is all a long-winded way of saying that I feel like I should be identifying problems and solutions this morning, but I don't have anything concrete I'm working on. I feel like I'm waiting for inspiration to strike.

But then I remember what King said about inspiration in On Writing: sure, inspiration will come around for you eventually, but it's up to you to make sure you're easy to find. That is, a muse needs some raw thought-stuff to work with, so you'd better just sit down and write something.

And I think he's right. (If nothing else, King's about the best example of a turnaround story that I can think of, and being of the introspective inclination, he might just have some understanding of what exactly allowed him to make that transformation.)

"There are things inside all of us that only come out when called upon, and the rest of the time we forget that they're there."
--B