This week, my daughter, (who lives in New Orleans), sent me the following Bob Dylan quote:
"Everything in New Orleans is a good idea."
In context, she used the quote to warn me of the dangers inherent in an abundance of good ideas, implying that some ideas may lead to bad outcomes. Of course, as I pointed out, this applies only to those ideas that are acted upon.
Most weeks my thoughts and words overflow. I belch them out, they spill onto the page, I let them temper into a semi-amenable gelatinous mass, I mold and form, I heat, I cool, and when they have hardened I give them a final polish, frame them, and hang them on the wall. Just week before last I regurgitated three independent puddles onto the page. Some weeks I have so much to spew that it flows into the next week. So far this week I have dry heaves. The conversation with my daughter has given me pause. Most weeks my brain is like New Orleans; everything is a good idea. To quote more Bob Dylan:
"The ghosts race towards the light, you can almost hear the heavy breathing spirits, all determined to get somewhere."
"Night can swallow you up... Around any corner, there's a promise of something daring and ideal and things are just getting going. There's something obscenely joyful behind every door, either that or somebody crying with their head in their hands. A lazy rhythm looms in the dreamy air and the atmospere pulsates..."
"One of Napoleon's generals... ...said that here the devil is damned, just like everybody else, only worse. The devil comes here and sighs."
Bob was talking about New Orleans. But most weeks it could as easily be my mind, working to disgorge copious thought.
So. Is an abundance of good ideas, a good idea? Or not? First, some might want to argue that not all of my ideas are good ideas. But I would argue that any idea, put forth as a thoughtful challenge to see varying perspectives, is a good idea. Any idea, put forth with an active acknowledgement that all thoughts / ideas must continue to evolve and will never attain a final Perfection, is a good idea. Any idea, that builds creative tension, is a good idea. So the question remains, can there be too many good ideas?
Instinctively, I would like to answer, "No!" But if an idea demands an action, then a plethora of ideas may overwhelm and bog down progress / advancement / productivity, and some ideas that seem good at the time, may lead to a bad outcome. However, in the planning stage, I do not believe there can be too many ideas. And in the planning stage, I do not believe an idea should be judged and/or labeled---period.
I am still in the planning stage.
"What am I planning, you ask?"
"Why, World Domination; of course."
The first step in my plan is to understand reality, and to acknowledge that once I have grasped a reasonable understanding of reality, reality will have changed. I have found it difficult to advance my plan for World Domination when in each new moment the reality of the World has changed and I must spend that new moment searching for a new understanding. But in this search and rescue operation, I have gushed so many, (by my definition), good ideas that, (if anyone ever reads them), I believe have the potential to move those who are hanging on to a past reality (with conviction bordering on desperation), from their rock of ages to an understanding that reality has moved on. And if we can reach a majority agreement that reality is not statuesque and immobile, but rather gelatinous and moldable, then perhaps we can also work together to create an ever-evolving place in this World that will extend survival and allow all scattered eruptions of challenging, evolving thought to lead us to a universally synergistic Domination of our momentary World.
And then we must start again in the next moment.
I know... It is easier to hang on to tried and true old ideas than to constantly have to learn and grow. It is easier to lounge at the feet of a long-dead statue than to constantly belch, temper, mold, form, heat, cool, polish, frame, repeat. And, (even when we initiate a search and rescue operation for reality), it is easier to stop having ideas once we find one or two we like, than to constantly and forever belch, temper, mold, form, heat, cool, polish, frame, repeat. But if we do not produce an abundance of good ideas from which to choose a direction, I would argue that as a species we will have less time to reflect on what is easier.
The more frequently momentary reality slips from our grasp, and/or the further reality moves from our rock, the more directionless we will become. A constant flow of innumerable ideas is necessary for a complete picture from which to choose direction. There is no such thing as an overabundance of ideas.
