A (not so) brief reflection on many things

A brief reflection on inspiration and our midterm:

Inspiration comes in the oddest ways. On Wednesday when Hans and I found out that we had to create a new piece with just us because we had lost the Ninja in team Awesome Ninja Rapper (as I called us, i'm not sure it caught on), our first impulse was just to figure out a structure and go with that. We didn't really have an idea, but decided to go with the classic theme of relationships and explore how a relationship changes over time. This was all well and good, but I don't think either of us were really invested in it. After meeting we walked away from it, to meet later and figure out our actual piece.

Throughout the afternoon I chatted with friends, one of whom mentioned that a bell would be a fun sound effect to input into transitions, as we were planning to start our exploration in grade school. Another friend mentioned, in an entirely unrelated conversation, that she disliked one of her Education classes because she did not agree with the way they were being taught to teach children. An hour later, these two nuggets of information collided in my brain and exploded.

When I told Hans my idea later he was on board, but hesitant. It was totally different from what we had discussed earlier in the day. But as we worked more and more on our project we began to believe in it more and more. Finally, we created a piece that both of us were proud of.

I found it so funny that after three weeks of wracking my brain for inspiration, searching the world for something to spark a thought, it was two unrelated and mundane conversations that ended up providing an inspiration that refused to be ignored. The world really does inspire us, but not always in the ways we are expecting. You can't always search for inspiration, sometimes it has to find you itself.

A brief reflection on dementia:

This song has been in my mind since I first heard it, and it seems somewhat relevant: Muse - Madness

I sometimes wonder if it isn't terribly beautiful to lose your mind. Dementia has fascinated me for a long time, because I have seen family members experience it. What is more fascinating to me is the knowledge that it runs in my family, so there is a fair chance that I will one day be a loony old woman. The idea that one day all of my thoughts and memories will be completely skewed is very interesting to me. It is so funny to think that, although you may be all alone in the world, you may not know it because you cannot perceive reality. Or, your reality is something others cannot perceive, because whatever your mind says it is experiencing is inevitably real to you. My great aunt had a very meaningful friendship with a small doll before her death. She did not recognize most of the people around her, and this doll became her confidant and friend. No one can really know, but from what I heard of her she was not unhappy, in fact she was quite content.