Brain Space

I'm spending the day cleaning and organizing things. I start teaching a summer course on Friday (what a weird day to start a course) and still need to finalize the syllabus and the outline for the course. But of course, before I really get to work on that, I've got lots of other stuff to clean and organize around the house. Laundry to do, bills to organize and pay, blogs to catch up on.

I've been on vacation for about the last three weeks, only getting little time sensitive things done, and I'm more than ready to get back to work. Last night as I was cleaning out my RSS feed (I've switched over to Feedly; damn Google Reader and it's sad demise), I came across a post by Kottke on inventions and inspiration. In the interest of maximizing my cleaning, I opened it in a new tab but didn't read it until today.

I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do for my dissertation. I need time and space to sit and wade through the ideas and literature I'm interested in. Time to get to my idea. This article feels like encouragement.

In a similar vein, yesterday I watched Hyde Park on Hudson and one of the scenes has stuck with me. Franklin Roosevelt and the King of England were talking, alone after dinner, and discussing the women in their lives. The women were always buzzing around them with ideas and worries and thoughts, and Roosevelt told the King that whenever he needed a little space to think about something he opened up his stamp collection and everyone left him alone.

I need space to organize my thoughts. My interests. To get my ducks in a row. To be productive. To come up with great ideas.

I'm back from vacation and I'm drawing out my stamp collection. I'm looking for the adjacent possible.