Diary of a 53 year old college student – the muse appears –

It’s week 4 of my first semester back in school in over twenty years. My mind has had a hard time keeping up. Fortunately, I’ve been able to adapt a few study tricks that seem to be working well. As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, I’m having some trouble retaining information – the brain just isn’t as nimble as it was in my early twenties. I’ve started a practice of reading all of the weekly assigned text once and then letting it gestate for a couple days. I then reread the text and take notes. Finally, a third read which is more of a skim, seems to be sufficient to allow me to write with some sort of authority for the weekly writing assignments. Maybe that’s what college students have always done – it’s not how I’ve studied in the past, but, it’s working for now, so I’ll go with it.

I’ve been knee deep in critical thinking about technology and its influence on writing in the digital age. My brain seems to be swelling with new ideas at times, and at other times recuperating from the “attack” of new knowledge. I haven’t felt this challenged in years. As my friend Martha always says, “It’s a good thing.” What with all the reading, writing and thinking, you’d expect it hard to be creative. I’ve found just the opposite. Creativity and knowledge expand – the more you use, the more you get.

Still, I was somewhat surprised to have a new muse walk into the middle of my mind this week. There it was a fully formed character and story – and as they say, “You must court the muse when she appears.” So, this weekend, along with consuming all of next week’s reading assignments, I’ll try to capture the gist of this new book before she disappears into the ethers. Then, I’ll put her in the oven and let her bake.

Some of the ingredients for this next story involve, a rock star, a masterpiece, a plague, reincarnation and a pair of souls eternally bound together but separated at birth. Let’s start with Queen’s 1975 album ‘A night at the Opera’.

Stay tuned…