Wednesday, April 11, 2007

So why is it?

Why is it that during Shabbat and Yom Tovs, when I can't write anything down, that I get a bunch of great ideas for things to blog about? Seriously, I remember that during the Seder, I thought of something I wanted to write about. What it was is now a total blank. Same thing happened during the Shabbat Chol Hamoed. As my wife well knows, if I'm in the middle of saying something, or even thinking something, and I'm interrupted, the train of thought goes way out, and sometimes can never be found again. In fact, in American Sign Language, there is a great sign expression for this type of thing, called "Train-Gone-Sorry." Usually it is signed if you come in the middle or end of a conversation, and people aren't going to repeat the whole thing for you. But in my case it means the thought has left the station, no calling it back now.

It's so bad that if I'm in bed, or out somewhere, and think of something that I want to save, I usually pull out my trusty Treo 600 and shoot myself an e-mail. It reminds me of how one of my school teachers said that Socrates (I think??) thought that writing should be abolished, because it weakened people's memories.

Anyway, I hope I'll be able to remember the things I wanted to write about. If not, I'm sure some new inspirations will come.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to have to learn 'Train gone, sorry'! :-)

I have little notes scattered all over the place, kind of like you sending yourself an email. (BTW, I thing that's how Robert Pirsig did his writing.) The problem is, I often don't follow up. Then, months or even years later I'll find a note or notes stuck in some book or under a pile of papers, and only vaguely remember what the great idea was that I wanted to record or develop further (leading to a sense of regret). It's usually something connected to what I was learning, or something about the davenning, but sometimes something about an idea for a paper or opinion piece.

Usually the result is 'train gone, sorry!'. I've got to learn that sign...