Creation…

As I sit here before a blank screen, my mind is blank.

Nothing, nothing comes to mind to write about.

…

I worry sometimes about these periods of inactivity, when I take a vacation from creation, delve into other things, perhaps reading a novel (which perhaps as productive), reading comics (perhaps not as productive), or simply whittling away the few hours of the day watching television or surfing the internet (least productive and bordering on plan wasteful). 

There is a common belief among exercise experts who say that it is not wise to exercise every day, that to exercise every day is to put your body through much strain, that the body needs to rest for a day, “to catch a breath” to borrow a phrase. 

There is also those who regularly, like clockwork, adhere to their morning exercise rituals.  I recently read of a man (on the internet no less) that ran every day of his life for over forty years, through sickness and bad weather.  There are others out there like him, called “streakers,” I take it because they are “on a streak,” not because they ran nude.

I sometimes wonder whether the same idea applies to creation, that the mind, like the body, cannot be exercised every day, and that it is possible that the strain of creating every day, thinking of words, sentences, and paragraphs, that it all can be too much, and the brain just shuts down. 

I had to take a break from work today.  I was working on a motion for a client, researching the law, typing up the argument as I found the next nugget in a case I found.  It was freezing cold in my office, as it always is.  My mind felt compacted, wrung out, like a damp towel used to dry recently washed dishes.  I had to get out of my office, told the receptionist that, if anyone asked, I was going to walk around the building.  She smiled at me, knowing no one would.

In the Bible, God, when creating the universe and everything in it, took a rest on the seventh day after creating.  This is the infinite God, without boundaries and without limit, who can do any and everything.  He took a rest on the seventh day, to enjoy that which he created.  Is rest, therefore, written into the universal code?

Entropy.  Perhaps, it is a measure of entropy, a matter of diminishing returns, wherein a limited pool of “creative juice” accumulates in the brain, and when extracted, like oil from the ground, it does not replenish.  Use it, and you have that much less creative juice to put that story, that poem to paper.  Extract the precious resource, and the world becomes duller around you, colors look less bright and more and more generic, not cherry or bloody, not turquoise or inky, not the sunshine or peach, but just red, or blue, or yellow, or orange.  Things become less like other things, or more like other things in that they become one thing, a single thing, kind of like a Smurf.

There is a happiness in creation, a kind of joy in breathing life into words.

I love the description of Jesus as “the Word.” It is the ultimate merging of the physical realm with the written, a kind of recognition of the power of creation through writing.  It is a recognition that in writing something, that which is written comes into existence.

They also say that those who are baptized have been marked by God, inscribed with the Word across their heart, a powerful image.  The Holy Cross held the inscription, King of the Jews. 

This is why the failure to create, especially when I am cognizant of the period of inactivity is depressing, like I am less about the world around me and more about myself, like all that there is is contained within the thin skin on my bones, even though I know that there is more outside of myself. 

I have a tough time getting up in the morning to exercise.  I recently have bargained with myself to spend half the time running in the morning and the other half the time running.  While doing this, I spend half the time listening to the news while I spend the other half reading trivial items on the net.  I have been making my exercise goals by the end of the day.

I am tired; my brain is tired from creating.  Another blog post has been written.  An ounce of creative juice has been extracted and has been spent.  The needle is that much closer to empty.