Or the forest, when the surroundings are parched.
For the idea factory, a spark that ignites is the fuel that keeps creativity from dozing off. For a long time, I wasn’t sure whether I could hold my own as a creative person in real life. Artists, to my mind, were the chosen ones — fitted with a switch that was never installed in me. This gift of creating sculptures, paintings, books, songs, and plays. That world felt very far from mine, in thought and in practice. Of course I had ideas that sparked. But the sparking only ever happened in intimate, private spaces. Who wants to read my stories? Besides me, perhaps. Nobody. So I let go of the notion that my ideas might be valued by anyone beyond myself. The spark needed to ignite that leap of courage was missing. Or perhaps that brave little spark was simply smothered by the quiet no of the people around me.
That was then.
Today I trust in the igniting of ideas. The flickering of possibilities. And in the confidence that one of the countless ideas will begin as a spark and set a project ablaze.
Speaking of fire.
Headlines like “The world is burning” no longer describe some futuristic, dystopian scenario. Europe and North America are battling wildfires on a scale that is barely imaginable. People are fleeing the flames without their possessions. Clothing, documents, and their own lives — that is the carry-on luggage before the fire takes over.
Of course I am horrified and I feel for these people. And I feel the fear at the back of my neck, wondering what the world will look like in three years, or even thirty. Am I allowed to wallow in despair? Briefly, yes. Then get up.
And of course the old hippie in me speaks up: community. Solidarity. As if that ever went out of fashion. The theme, as always, is the community of human beings who have moved mountains together over the last 100,000 years. That team spirit of Homo Sapiens has not disappeared — at most it has been somewhat dulled and lulled to sleep by AI. So then it is high time to wake the spirit of collaboration.
Let’s work together. For our children and their future.
