I met another kindred spirit. He told of writing his essays while sitting on a tractor. I write while I am driving. Such was my experience today as I travelled to Rosetown and Eston and back home!
If you are ever on a trip with me and I go quiet, it’s not that I don’t like you. It may simply be that I am writing to the hard drive of my brain. I may put it on paper or into electronic form later, but at that point a laser is inscribing the words into my brain cells.
This can be frustrating for others around me. They may realize I’m in another world, but there are no ways to enter that world. Until the sermon forms, or the essay congeals.
The most frustrating part for others? In a matter of an hour I will write a sermon that needs little revision. Or I will write a draft report that is effective and forceful and needs no further additions.
All seemingly out of nowhere!
Of course, you have to check out the scraps of paper that I’ve jotted little notes on and then pitched. Or check out the web browser history to see the sites I’ve visited. Or check out my early morning Bible reading times to see how many times I’ve read a passage. Or check out the books I’ve skimmed and the paragraphs I’ve meditated upon. Or check out the radio news reports I’ve heard. Or check out the dinner table discussions I’ve participated in.
I’m learning to take those pieces, carry the puzzle with me, and let my brain, both consciously and unconsciously sort out their sizes and shapes, and where they best fit. Sometimes an afternoon rest produces amazing results. An outline emerges, sentences form and a conclusion arises.
OK, not every time. Sometimes the slogging is like wandering through a bog trying to find the gold nugget you know is there but you can’t see. But, sometimes the puzzle puts itself together.
Those days I smile, pump my fist and yell (quietly, of course) – YES!