253. New Ideas

It had been weeks since he’d had an original thought. Everything in his brain had been living there for ages. There were no new arrivals. He was stuck. Every day it was the same worries, the same desires, the same ideas. His mind had become solid, worn down with lines tracing the paths of the same thoughts and feelings that kept recurring.

He thought the problem was that he wasn’t seeing anything new, and this meant he couldn’t think anything new. With new stimulus, new ideas would emerge. He started going for walks around the neighbourhood, paying close attention to everything he saw. He started reading books that went beyond his usual interests. He started asking people questions he wouldn’t ordinarily ask. He started watching alternative films with strange premises and even stranger titles.

He did all of these things, but nothing changed. His mind was still as solid as before. He longed for the feeling of genuine novelty. He remembered this feeling well, for it used to excite him enormously. To think of something entirely new was really one of the best feelings in the world.

He wondered if he wasn’t getting anywhere because he was trying to force the matter. Maybe it was better to leave the problem alone, and a solution would arrive on its own. So he started going about his usual routines, still trying some of his new activities, but without the same intentional vigour. He tried his best not to think about the problem at all.

A long time passed without any noticeable change. But then one evening, lying in bed and unable to sleep, he had an idea. A marvellous new idea! It had arrived seemingly from nowhere, as though he had been touched by some kind of divine inspiration. He played with it in his mind, carefully exploring its many implications.

Then, without warning, a second idea arrived. Perhaps it was born from the first, but he was too excited to think about this. Two new ideas was a bounty greater than he could have hoped for.

But before he could consider the second idea in full, a third appeared. Three new ideas was almost too many for him to hold. He needed to write them down. He could already feel his new treasures leaving his mind as quickly as they’d arrived.