Ideas Take Time

Dear Laura,

Now that my teaching is off to a positive start and my boys are settled into their school routines, I have been reflecting on my full summer of travel.  Today I am thinking about our trip to Washington D.C. this past July.  We saw an incredible variety of art (more on that later), but today I wanted to take a moment to share a resource that ties in our trip, with the Lincoln Memorial and the World Trade Center Memorial.

The "National Monuments Tour" with D.C. by Foot ended at the Lincoln Memorial where we wandered around the vast space with hundreds of other people.  I was surprised how many people were out that night! Today, while working in the studio,  I listened to this podcast from Studio 360.

I know you will appreciate this having stood within that vast space feeling all that history.  The end of this podcast comes to the World Trade Center Memorial and the criticism of it taking too long.  The Lincoln Memorial took WAY longer.  It is a good reminder that great ideas take time.  You discussed this in your previous letter while responding to the video I posted about creativity.   The point is that our ideas sometimes don't bubble up to our materials/hands and then shared with the world for quite a while.  At least we are not alone in our impatience with the work. Trusting the process is hard!

I am off to stain these wooden boxes I built today...Looking forward to talking with you soon,