Did They Say You're Daydreaming Too Much?

When I sat down to write tonight it was not my intention to write about daydreaming. This book I'm reading by Ray Bradbury right now must be getting inside my head.

It doesn't matter what you do creatively, this book has a really important message to convey that has value for everyone who makes stuff.

In the book, Bradbury encourages children to dream. I'm into that.

I used to daydream a lot when I was a kid. As I grew older and became assimilated into this wonderful society we've built I lost most of that natural state of mind.

My bed used to sit alongside the window of my bedroom, and I'd sit there every evening staring out over the back gardens of the neighbours' houses.

What I thought about wasn't too important.

I'd just stick on the tunes, whip out the smokes from their secret hiding place inside the torn lining of an old coat, and chill out.

That was such a pleasure for me.

Doing nothing, having a smoke and contemplating anything at all.

It still is a pleasure although I kicked the smokes about 15 years ago now.

Staring Out The Window

We had this maths teacher at school, he was a real stiff. A bit of a headcase too.

Mind you, in a 1980's Christian Brothers boys school most of the teachers were headcases, nervous wrecks of men, alcoholics or all three.

O'Sullivan was his name. Highly intellectual, at least that's how we saw him.

He was bald with a pointy nose and a small mouth. He had half his neck missing, must have been his thyroid gland or something he had removed.

Wooden as they come. On reflection now, he almost certainly believed completely in intellectual pursuits over art and creativity.

He told my parents at a parent teacher meeting one time that I needed to focus more. I spent too much time staring out the window.

My parents didn't stress too much about it though, I was doing ok by their measure.

Luckily Fortunately for me I occupied the middle ground when it came to maths so I avoided all the grief the weaker kids got.

I got none of the praise either, which I never craved anyway so no biggie.

Besides, what did he know about what was good for me? Not many teachers from that era, or even now, know what's best for kids.

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How To Daydream A Wife Into Reality

These days the most enjoyable time I spend is sitting at the table in my kitchen with a cup of strong coffee, the early sun beaming in the rear window.

I write, I think, I read. I could sit there all day sometimes. Then I get uneasy and I have to make something.

It's not a voice in my head telling me I need to get going, to be productive kind of uneasiness. Rather it's an inner motivation to move.

Of course we can force ourselves to sit at the desks, stand in front of the easel, work the machine so to speak, but do we really make anything worthwhile by doing so?

I'm not sure. Maybe, sometimes.

From my standpoint all I can say is I do what I do because I feel compelled to, not because I love it.

I can give it up for a while out of frustration but I always seem to come back to it.

I do love it in a way I suppose, but it's not love in the common sense of the word. I'm not besotted, I never have been besotted with anything.

Except my now wife when I was 16.

I used to stare out my bedroom window and think about meeting her in the street, catching her eye, holding her stare. Maybe even having a conversation.

Little did I know 7 years later we'd hook up, and eventually get married and have kids.

Long Live The Daydreamer

Love?

I don't know what that means to be honest. It's a very mixed up word in our society.

For many of us, when we hook up with other people we tend to put on a good show, don't we. It lasts for a while, the pretending, then it wears thin and we find out the truth.

Although some of us don't and then the shit hits the fan.

Anyway, that's not what this article is about. It's about creative affairs of the heart rather than personal ones.

The world we live in is developing a better idea around creativity. Daydreaming seems to be encouraged more now amongst educators and that's a good thing.

As psychological studies uncover more truths about cognitive development, the old world ideas die out and better ones take their place.

The old behaviourist notion that human beings are solely a product of their environment has been left behind, and children are encouraged to dream.

And it's about time too.

The subsequent challenge for us as we get older then, is to maintain that urge to dream.

Be careful here though.

Others might entertain you for a while, allow your daydreaming and fantasy. But eventually they will tell you you're daydreaming too much to be healthy.

They'll tell you to get a real job and try to convince you of the merits of staying with the herd.

Beware, these people are demons!

They don't know what you and I know.