Yesterday a friend complimented me on the aesthetics of my todo board, but continued after a brief pause, “Personally, I'm a starer.”
I had to laugh, I knew exactly what he meant. My father is a starer, I am a starer. We stare. When trying to work out practical solutions,
we just sit and stare, or stand and stare. Sometimes hour after hour. If someone was to ask us what we did all day, we might
answer “I designed”, my father would say “I am thinking”. Could we say “I was staring”, especially since it might be into empty space?
Actually, our answer would be correct, we design, we think about the problem, the possible solutions. We see the space or object to
be changed with our physical eyes, we see other things in our mind's eye. The images alternate, blend, with no deliberate action.
Let the force be with you. I remember on many occasions seeing my father look at his model train board, about 2 x 3 meters in size,
for hours on end, then grab a box full of track pieces and assemble a complex route system, as though he was laying them out on
an invisible chart. I never even saw him making notes. I need to make notes to hold on to my ideas, but many are created in the
same way, by staring into space. My house and workshop were designed to a large extent by staring. Many a sketch was
abandoned when I stared at the project. My friend is building a house he designed by staring. Its a lovely house, you'd never guess its
strange beginnings.
So, any time someone asks you what you are doing, when you were staring, say you were creating your next masterpiece.
And where does that leave the todo board? I still need reminding to eat, do the laundry, cut fire wood, pay a bill. Staring wont do those jobs, alas.
