Echo Beach Tide Pools

By Keith Alan Johnson
06-09-2000

         Since my last essay, I've been poised over the keyboard waiting for the next inspiration to strike. I've been on vacation, I've had the whole week off and many an opportunity, yet nothing has come to mind. Most of the essays I've written so far have been things I've mulled over in the past or things I've read about or researched. I've gone over the past few weeks to figure out what's been occupying my time and I've found nothing. Of course "nothing" isn't bad. I've kicked back and relaxed a great deal. It's been refreshing, which is what a vacation is for in the first place. Yet I can't help but feel a little guilty for not accomplishing anything.
         So now that the vacation is nearly over, I've found my topic. The reason I can't think of anything is because I haven't fed my mind. That sort of falls back on last essay, doesn't it? So now I'm casting about looking for scraps, like a starving man. I'm mentally hungry. Juli listens to talk radio quite a bit. I've been there, and with the exception of NPR, I've found in most cases that it is a little lacking.
         I've thought about subscribing to the newspaper, but most of what I get there is the same as what I get on the 5 O'clock News; i.e. flood, fire, famine, doom, defeat, and despair. I don't need that. Maybe I should subscribe to National Geographic again.
         In any case, it's rather obvious to me that I need to feed my mind. It's a muscle that needs exercise as much as any other. I have no doubt that the mental exercise spills over into the imagination as well. I can see where writer's block or artist's block could easily be attributed to a lack of food for the mind. If nothing is going on upstairs then nothing is going to flow from the fingers. Or if I am focused on one thing too much, then that is all that will come out of the creative mind. Baseball, for example [there's a game on the box as I write this]. If all I think about during the summer is baseball then that's all I'll write or talk about. Nothing against baseball, but how boring would that be?

         So it's time to feed the mind. I'm hungry.