What You Will Think About Today

The "father of air conditioning," Willis Haviland Carrier, claims he had a flash of genius while waiting for a train.  He began thinking about temperature and humidity, and within moments he had a scientific method to chill the air.

Back then, you couldn't distract yourself from thinking so easily.  

I remember Carrier all day as I walk around in the kind of blazing heat that makes it hard to breathe.  I thank God for what I take for granted:  air conditioning, ice, refrigeration, cold water from a fountain. Some one began thinking and something wonderful happened:

Invention.

I tell my students that invention is the hardest stage of writing.  They simply can't come up with an idea.  They can't begin creative acts--making something from nothing--because they don't know how to begin thinking.

Well.  Let's just sit for a bit, as if we were waiting for a train on a foggy night with absolutely nothing to distract us.  Let's just sit here and think. 

It all began while a man waited for a train, thinking.

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Journal:  Do I schedule thinking time into my day?