A chimp sees some bananas hanging high in the cage out of reach. A stick and some boxes lie beside him. After some circumspection, in a flash, a solution. Insight is a discovery of tools applied to a needful circumstance to reach a goal. (Connecting the dots. Where have we heard that before?) Skillful behavior is energized by need. Skill, a goal, and motivation.
I have gained confidence that, if I have a problem, I can turn it over to my brain and it will be resolved. No writer's block, just incubation resting heavily on a lifetime of reading and other experience. I lie sleepless often, not with existential angst ("ahngst", German for "fear", not pronounced with the ugly, flat "a"), but incubating, and smiling in the dark at the adventure. It takes time, and a place to contemplate. In the dark of night, I grin a lot because I am alone with my character working on the problem. (They say, simulating a smile is good nutrition.) Or it can happen during some other simple, repetitive task, showering, or pedaling the recumbant exercycle. And it hits me.
There's one prerequisite: experience. An intellectual background. An activity background. Can the world be "too much with us"? I question that poet's detachment. But experience in reading tough language, the fine print on a legal contract, a prescription, a scientific article, a Supreme Court decision, newspapers every day, how-to assembly directions, a computer manual, or the lengthy tomes, From Here to Eternity, Moby Dick (not skipping the chapters on whales), War and Peace, Cricket on the Hearth, and so on.
(Last updated on January 30, 2006 )