It’s meant to be a penny, of course. A single bus ride in Edinburgh costs a pound. Inflation affects even the imagination these days.
Regular readers will know that buses play a fairly large role in my life, and I’ve just written the last entry all about buses, one way or another. But I did realise yesterday how much buses help me get ideas for blog entries.
The last couple of days, I’ve been at home for only short periods of time. I’d been out doing nice things, seeing people I love. But just sitting at home in the evening, thoughts were not really coming for writing the blog.
There seems to be something about bus travel, about glimpses of things, or perhaps the space to be on your own and reflect, that is conducive to writing it down. Just sitting at home may not do it. This is a little concerning for someone who a) wants to write more and b) wants to be at home more.
Of course, there’s nothing to stop me being around home more, but with a few bus rides here and there. Moderation in everything. But just as travel broadens the mind, it also broadens the input of information, stimulates you to make connections.
Trains work too, I have to say. Trains are especially good when they cross spaces where roads don’t run. Crossing fields, working through forests, seeing a house there, a car there, someone on a bike waiting at the train crossing for you to pass…
All of these immediately suggest stories, worlds to step into, that can being as soon as pen reaches paper, or hands square up on a laptop.
Funny business, writing. We all do so much, live so much, in our days, that there is plenty to write about. Yet we live in an age where so many aspects of life are recorded more and more. There are plenty of others at the same task - security cameras notwithstanding.  Is there a need for us to record?
Blogs suggest there is. The opportunity to record, but also to get others’ feedback, not just on your experience, but also how you write, is something above and beyond what’s been available before.
They say that both introverts and extroverts go to parties. But introverts leave earlier. They need to get away, to process what’s been happening. While the extrovert recharges their batteries through being with others, after a while, the introvert needs to do this by spending time on their own.
I wrote enthusiastically about yesterday’s party – and the party, the company, the chat, were all good in themselves, not just the food or the leftovers…Today, I am full on people, and ready to fill up on being on my own. But I do see that, while I long for time at home during busy working weeks, just being at home will not push the imagination.
I have to do a few things in order to write. Input leads to output. Writing is not so much of my life that I’m at a point of writer’s block. But I now understand the point of “digging ditches“, to requote Erica Jong from a recent post, in order to find the words again.
Even given that, words are elusive at times. Perhaps like being out in a boat, waiting for the fish. My discipline at the moment is to go out fishing each day, or at least most days.
But sometimes, a shoal of words, of ideas, or memories, comes past. As this is the third post today, you can guess that I’m keen to keep dragging them into the boat while they’re still around.