The Station

Where do ideas come from? Just a little blurb from when I couldn't think of anything to write about.

There’s an instant before an idea is born that a person could be forgiven for thinking it’s something that could ever truly belong to someone. In that moment, the idea (especially one which is either terribly good or just plain terrible) doesn’t belong to the person thinking it any more than a puff of smoke belongs to the breeze which is blowing it along. It’s just along for the ride, cruising on down that tunnel-o-love which passes for fate, destiny, luck or whatever you want to call it; and you are nothing more than a spectator. 

The next thing you know it’s last stop at Grand Plans station. All passengers must collect their bags and exit the train. That’s where an idea really gets interesting. The first part of the journey was a straight shot really, more like a bullet fired from a gun than anything else. Now all of a sudden there are options, different paths leading towards different outcomes. All the while other passengers are leaving the train, jostling and rushing about, all trying to get where they’re going with hardly any regard at all for newcomers or tourists. These are the familiar ideas, the responsible types that keep things moving forward. They have no time for site seeing and they certainly don’t want to have to deal with a bunch of looky loos milling about with no idea of where they’re going or what they’re doing. They’re always on the move, doing this and doing that. If ideas were people (and who says they aren’t) these would be the ones that always get to work on time, pay their taxes and buy sensible shoes. We’ll leave them for now, because we all know what they’re up to and where they’re headed.  

These new folks that have stepped off the train, they’ve got some decisions to make. They’re fully formed now and had best make something of themselves before time runs out. They don’t have much time you see, because it’s a short life for ideas like these ones. I’m sure whoever it is that created them didn’t mean for it to be this way, but it just can’t be helped. One minute they’re running along at full speed, the world stretched out before them like it’s never going to end, and the next they’re nowhere to be found. Sometimes it’s because they take a path that just doesn’t work out, but most of the time they don’t go anywhere at all. Most of the time they just stand there dumbfounded on the platform, too scared to ever leave the station. I’d like to think that one of the familiar types might come along and take them under their wing. That way the idea at least gets to live on in some way.  Mostly though I don’t think that’s the case. Mostly I think the newcomers just stay where they’re at, watching the world go by. Eventually they don’t even know why they got on the train at all.

These new ideas though, they’re a bit more bold, a bit more sure of themselves. They’ve never been to this part of town, but maybe they’ve got a close friend or relative who came this way once or twice before. Whatever the reason, they look like they’re going somewhere. They’re on the move now, floating along through the crowd like a drop of oil on the surface of a pond, surrounded but separate.  Just like that same drop of oil, their only choice is to stay together lest they find themselves dispersed into the world around them.  They’ve almost made it off of the platform now. I think this is where we will bid them farewell and good luck. Maybe we’ll hear from them years from now, once they’ve settled and made their place in the world. If not, well that’s ok too because Grand Plans station is a busy place with new ideas arriving all the time.