Inspiration can be found everywhere. It’s only a matter of how hard you look, or if you look at all. In my case it’s not so much look as it is listen.
After years and years of loud music in small rooms, incredibly uncomfortable buds shoved tight in my ears, and maybe digging too deep with a Q-tip, my hearing isn’t all that great. I’m not deaf by any means. I merely lack full comprehension if I’m not focused on the speaker. My wife calls that just being a man. Whatever.
So there are times when I don’t get the story straight. I might piece together what I thought was being conveyed from the bits I actually heard. How else am I to convince the speaker that I was listening?
But I wasn’t.
And what I come up with sometimes ends up way off base.
At times this requires some back-pedaling, and failing that, a dash of apologizing. Eventually it comes around to what really was said. And on some occasions, what was said pales in comparison to what I thought was said. I’ve even found at times that what I thought had been said was much more interesting.
Since this wasn’t the actual message, I have no problem using it in a story of my own. A number of my stories started this way.
A similar example is when I misunderstand song lyrics. I’ve mentioned it in a previous post. So I won’t bother you with it again.
With that in the open, if ever you find yourself talking with me and think I might not be paying attention, don’t get upset. You’re helping the creation of my next (or current) project. How cool is that?
