1st blog think initiative

THE THINK INITIATIVE

THE THINK INITIATIVE

Help foster creativity In a 30 something trying to maintain her brain!

First of all please don't let the blog title fool you into believing this will be a platform for heady intellectual discussions on the state of the world. Nope not even close. Don't get me wrong, world issues concern me as much as the next guy but this is gonna be a little more light, humour friendly! So what the hell is it about then? It's about you helping me helping you, k. Basically I have been thinking a lot about thinking lately and I'm feeling quite dull, boring lacking some spark or spirit. I'm getting older and feeling stupider ( more stupid?) fuck, see! I can't be the only one with this dilemma, the realization that age doesn't bring wisdom but a gradual decline in mental acuity. You begin by forgetting how to spell words, you repeat the letters over and over until even the correct spelling now looks bizarre. Than you start forgetting the words themselves. Remember all that random shit you learned as a kid, the names of like twenty trees and plants, the different instrument families, how to play the ukulele. Where the hell does that knowledge dissipate to? I know your not likely to retain things you don't use in everyday life but Jesus I have lost a lot of basic shit. Google is my god.
Math, MATH is downright embarrassing. An example of this tragic conclusion came during a written interview for a job at the liquor store in my early twenties. Two questions. Multiplication and division...show your work. No problem I thought until I started to realize I have no fucking clue how to do long division and a foggy memory of carrying over and adding zeros somewhere for the multiplication. In a shame induced sweat fest I clumsily filled the paper with no less numbers, scribbles and symbols than the standard model.

All resulting in defeat and no call back obviously. That night I asked my partner to show how to do these problems, he did, it was easy. Easy if you can remember the formula! It wasn't a breakdown in my basic understanding of forth grade curriculum, it was my addle ass shit for brains. More mysterious was how I an A math student was being tutored by my ( I could give a shit about my marks) boyfriend. WTF.
So where am I going with this? Well in the last few weeks I have done a few very small creative projects and realized how much I enjoy these somewhat silly but thoughtful tasks. First I drew a picture for a friends kid of Darth Vader, then I wrote a song to a guitar melody my husband wrote and finally I made up chip flavours for the lays contest. Now I'm not saying I'm the next Picasso, Chris (my husband) and I are going to be youtube stars or Lays chips will even consider my flavour choices, but what I did notice was a change in myself. These small tasks made me incredibly happy. They allowed me to step outside of my predictable head and have a little fun. I felt completely reenergized and a little manic, which is great in small doses! When I was a teenager I was always writing, painting creating on some level or another. I was also severely depressed and probably described as weird by most of my friends. However although it was a very hard and trying time I certainly never felt boring, I was always occupied with the next idea or overwrought with pain from self created worries and issues. So what happened to that vivacious kid? Paxil, Paxil happened. A blessing and a curse.

It allowed me to find peace and calm within my thoughts but also stripped away my foolish spontaneity. No longer was painting the doghouse at three in the morning by candlelight a good idea. Playing solo basketball in the winter wearing my fathers overalls didn't make sense. Talking to my mothers house plants while rubbing their leaves with mayonnaise, in hindsight was a little strange. I just stopped doing things for the sake of doing them. This may make you less of an enigma to the neighbours but a little something does die inside, that spark I mentioned earlier.
So where do you come in? Well… I am hoping that maybe there is something I can help you with, a question, an idea, some brainstorming. Maybe you need a tie breaker a third opinion. Let me be your operator! Wtf does that mean, well when we were kids and needed to settle an argument we would call the operator (0) and what she/he said goes.

This was pre internet of course but it was a tried and true system. Perhaps your working on a product and need a catchy tag line or advert idea, who knows, anything at all really. So what would be the point of all this? Well I'm Hoping that I might be able to help you with a creative dilemma and in turn you can help me jog my noggin. So your probably thinking why don't I just go and paint a picture or write a poem or some such shit. Well a baby, a baby is why. Mother natures great excuse but it is true. When the babe goes to bed I'm to tired to start a big project and when she's awake it's pointless. Trying to be creative amongst constant stops and starts whilst trying to prevent paint poisoning and a wool area rug massacre isn't worth it. To mention my once studio space is now a nursary won't be surprising I'm sure. Also that would circumvent the whole point. I'm hoping to get a glimpse into someone else's kunundrums and mental blocks to maybe feel solidarity, inspiration and hopefully help! I live in my own head enough...now let me into yours!...umm...please. Of course there is no guarantees that I can solve your issue or that you would even like the solution if I did but what's the harm in trying. Now let's go over my vast array of qualifications that allows me to speak with authority on any manner of topics...a hem.

• Arts and crafts connoisseur - I like art. I've done crafts ( somewhat against my will) but crafts none the less. I cannot name 98 percent of artists or their paintings, however I enjoy looking at them and being jealous of their talent. I've painted a number of pictures and some people actually bought them or had them commissioned, that makes me a professional right?
• Relationship expert- I have been with my husband for twenty years. Since I was 13. That has got to count for something. As far as advice this may be a good or bad thing, depending on what your after.
• Dental Hygienist- this obviously gives me cart Blanche as far as medical insight. The hygienist is essentially the bartender of the health professions, we listen to everyone's problems most not being mouth related.
• Parent- With a ten month old baby girl under my belt I now know EVERYTHING you could ever want to know about how to parent.

So hopefully the sarcasm is translated into text, but I will put thought into your issues. Also comedy and an unladylike amount of vulgarity. That's what it's about. Let's give this a try, hit me up in the comments. Or you can email me if you want to discuss a hoo ha problem or your husbands penis size privately ;). Cheers!!

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