Ideas that Fly

I have great ideas all the time, if I do say so myself. I’ll be going about my day and ideas just pop into my head, ideas about inventions, products, books or movies, etc. Sometimes I’ll even say to myself, “Sayyyyy-that’s a great idea!” but then I’ll completely screw it all up by following that with “I’ll have to remember that!”

Of course I never do. Generally, in less than the time it takes me to remark on what a great idea I’m having, whatever I’ve thought is gone, flying back to Great Idea Land. It’s very frustrating. I used to be known for having a great memory. I never had to write anything down. I could tell you what someone said and what they were wearing on a day five years ago. People were amazed at this. I was amazed at this, but would pretend that I was not. But over the years and several rounds of anesthesia later, my memory sucks. If I don’t write it down, it’s gone. Not only is it gone, it wiped the hard drive clean with a magnet before it left.

I have a theory about Great Ideas, though. I believe in the idea of a Collective Unconscious, and I think that that is where all Great Ideas reside. So when the Great Idea that showed up in my head wanders off in search of something shiny, it ends up in the Collective Unconscious. There it sits decoratively until someone else thinks it, and maybe does something with it(like write it down or something equally ridiculous), and then that Great Idea maybe gets to become more than just an idea. Yep, that’s my great idea about Great Ideas. It’s a fabulous theory, but since I’m not making any royalties off of it, I’d just as soon forget it.