As in: I’m blocked, I have ______’s block; I’ve had ______’s block for a long time; I can’t make anything, I must be blocked… A common turn of the phrase. Adopted into our culture as an answer to the question posed by others, “Why aren’t you working on something?” Or as answer when we ask ourselves, “Why can’t I create something? What’s going on?”
I wanted to explore that and an image popped in my mind, PHYSICAL BLOCKS. As in the toys we had as children. I pictured one sitting on the floor alone as the blue block in the image. I saw it as an immovable object. And the height of a wall. I saw it as very tall, and stretched very far from side to side. Insurmountable.
But I realized you could walk around it! Clockwise. Counterclockwise. OR you could climb over it. Hmmm… Are we thinking about creative blocks in the wrong way. Has the common parlance allowed or even led us to stop dead in our tracks?
Even the neighborhood blocks can be visualized this way -- “you can walk AROUND the block.” This may be a tangent but I realized that I walk the dogs over and over on the same route… go to the corner, turn right at Mark’s house, make a left at the next street. (Hopefully they will have both pooped by then.) Turn round, retrace my steps and head home. BUT, sometimes I find myself continuing on even though it wasn’t in my plans. But it’s a nice day, what the heck I have time. Maybe I’ve hit upon something metaphorical here. Maybe letting my dog walk wander is similar to letting my mind wander.
I found an interesting and SHORT (a nod to Mary who likes to know how much time to set aside) article on writer’s block – which applies to other creative pursuits as well, of course. GO TO THE RECOMMENTATIONS PAGE ON THIS SITE